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This project successfully funded on 2nd February 2026, you can still support them with a donation.
Spirit of Show
Aberdeen, Aberdeen City, United Kingdom
£1,600
raised so far
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Aim
A documentary exploring the history and making of the Aberdeen Student Show, a century old institution and celebration of Doric.
Spirit of Show
For over 100 years students in Aberdeen have staged an annual original musical comedy at His Majesty's Theatre. The show parodies well-known titles from the world of film, theatre and literature and is written mostly in the traditional north east dialect of Doric. Aside from entertaining, it's purpose is to raise money for charity, as part of the Aberdeen Students Charity Campaign.
Spirit of Show is a feature documentary following the making of the 2026 Aberdeen Student Show, Cove Actually.
Delving into the history and traditions of the show, we speak with Student Show alumni to look at its impact over the years, its use and celebration of Doric and the comedic and cultural differences between the north east and the rest of Scotland.
As well as this, we follow the year long creation of the 2026 show, from the appointment of the production team, auditions and the rehearsal period, through to the performance week.
What is the Aberdeen Student Show?
The Student Show has been produced every year in Aberdeen without a break since 1921, including throughout World War II. The 2025 show 'Seagully Blonde' raised over £167,000 for 50 local charities. As such, it is the longest running student charity show of its kind in the UK. 2026 will see the 105th show.
The cast is made up of students from Aberdeen University, Robert Gordon's University and the North East Scotland College. They rehearse each new show for four weeks during the Easter academic holiday. The following week they perform the show at His Majesty's Theatre to often full houses.
The Origins
In 1920, the Students’ Representative Council (SRC) of Aberdeen University established a series of fund-raising events in aid of local hospitals; central to which was the annual Gala Week.
In 1921 the Gala Week opened with the first Student Show, a mock trial (of a breach of promise case) held in the Aberdeen University Debating Chamber (“The Debater”) at Marischal College.
The Gala Week Committee then invited the University Debating Society to stage an annual musical comedy or revue based on student life. The first of these, in 1922, ‘Stella the Bajanella’ was written by Eric Linklater with music by JS Taylor. The Show then became an annual event, performed in various venues in Aberdeen, before finding a home in His Majesty’s Theatre in 1929.
The Experience
Student Show is a continuous process. Preparation for the next show begins just days after the curtain has dropped on the previous production. Each year, an eager team of students is chosen to lead the organisation of the show (the admin team) and a director, musical director and choreographer, often student show alumni, are asked to take the reigns.
Although a lot of the work takes place over the course of the year, for the cast of students, the whole show is put together in just four short weeks in March/April. This intensive rehearsal period is a bonding experience and has resulted in many life-long friendships.
Relationships formed during student show have endured for lifetimes, perhaps most famously among the members of renowned entertainment outfit Scotland the What? (Buff Hardie, Steve Robertson and George Donald) who first met and worked together in the 1950s.
The Purpose
The show now raises well over £150, 000 annually which goes straight to local charities in and around Aberdeen. During rehearsals, time is set aside to visit some of these charities and to see the impact the money raised has.
What does Spirit of Show hope to achieve?
The Student Show is a unique tradition. As well as entertaining the masses (selling out HMT's 1500 seat theatre for a week each year) raising an impressive amount for charities and being a hugely rewarding experience for those involved, the show serves to preserve and celebrate the North East dialect of Doric (Northeast Scots). Doric is a sub-set of vernacular Scots, officially protected by the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Once forbidden to be taught in schools, plenty of Scots do not even know Doric exists. This film will follow this annual celebration of Doric and Doric humour as well as look at the importance of dialect preservation and the role the Student Show has played in a recent renaissance.
What will we do with your contributions?
Filming has begun on the documentary, following the progress of the administrator , director and script writing team as they brainstorm ideas and develop the script.
Your contributions will cover the costs of the filming the documentary and the post production process including editing, colour grading and mixing. It will also cover hiring local crew, contributor participation expenses (travel etc), buying hard-drives and memory cards and distribution of the film, including submitting to film festivals, ensuring that people get the chance to see the film.
Contributors
We will interview some of the many Student Show alumni - from those who remember the early days and how things have changed, to those who went on to form their own hugely successful sketch comedy group after meeting through the Student Show. Some former cast members have gone on to forge successful careers in the arts and we will hear from some of them about their experiences of the show including Graham Stuart, MD of So Television which he co-founded with Graham Norton. We will also hear from linguists, singers and rappers who actively promote the dialect.
Location
All filming will take place in Aberdeen and our main locations will be university rehearsals spaces and the beautiful, historic His Majesty's Theatre in the heart of the city. Access has been granted for the filming of this documentary.
The Team
Director/Producer - Lynne Cowie
Lynne is a freelance TV and short film Producer. She works in unscripted television and recently produced two Screen Scotland funded short films (Return to Arabia dir. Mar Felices and Fitted dir. Diane Devlin). Fitted was selected for Sea Change Film Festival and International Film Festival Glasgow in 2025. Lynne was selected to be a part of the Producer Accelerator cohort in 2024, a Screen Scotland funded film talent initiative nurturing the creative and professional development of filmmakers and creatives working in the Scottish screen sector. From Aberdeen (well, Culter) Lynne studied English Literature at Aberdeen University. She was in the cast for four student shows and directed the 2008 show, Date Expectations. With experience of both worlds, Lynne is well positioned to write, direct and produce a film about the show.
Producer - Craig Souter
Hailing from Portsoy (Aberdeenshire), Craig is a freelance Producer. Having over a decades experience within the world of media production, across both pre & post production, Craig has spent the past several years working with Sky to create and deliver their adverts. In 2020, Craig set up Pep Productions as a means to create TV, Docs & Shorts, with several productions currently in the works. Craig has a BA (Hons) in Popular Music from Edinburgh Napier University but prior to this he studied for 4 years at North East Scotland College (music & acting) where he took part in the Student Shows and was the Doric Loon (leading man) in Lynne's Date Expectations in 2008.
Producer - Ross Brechin
Ross is a Graphic Designer and marketing professional, based in Aberdeen, where he works for a global energy solutions provider and is a graduate of Robert Gordon University (Corporate Communication). During a lengthy University career, Ross was directly involved as a cast member and Admin Team member for 8 Student Shows (2000-2007), was Administrator in 2003 (An American In Powis), and has continued to support the show in various backstage roles since 2008. Ross also works for various theatre companies in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire, in stage management and crewing, as well as providing graphics support in print and on screen.
Crew
We plan to provide the opportunity for local talent to work on the film. Roles including lighting designer, sound recordist and editor will ideally be filled by Aberdeen based crew. If you have an interest in film-making and would like to be involved, please get in touch.
Email address: [email protected]
Creative Scotland Crowdmatch
We're delighted to announce that our Crowdfunder campaign is being supported by Creative Scotland's Crowdmatch. Pledges will be matched on a £1 to £1 basis, up to a maximum amount of £250 per unique supporter. This means is that every donation we receive (up to £250) will be matched by Creative Scotland: if you donate £50 for example, we will receive another £50 from them. That is absolutely massive for us in being able to reach our goal.
We do, however, need to raise the entire funding amount for our campaign, or the Creative Scotland match funding will not be unlocked. So please help us in any way you can to reach our goal, whether you donate or share the campaign far and wide.
Note: Crowdmatch supports individual and unique pledges. So if you pledge more than once, we will only get the Crowdmatch once. A unique pledge is classed as a separate name, email address and payment details.
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made