Fringe veteran writer and performer Kara Wilson (Bloomsbury Bell; Beryl Cook: A Private View) is returning to Edinburgh for 2026 with her sixth “painter play”: Helen Bradley: Painter and Storyteller. This new piece of writing centres on Edwardian painter Helen Bradley and sees the performer recreate an entire oil painting in the style of the artist live on stage. Intrigued by this unique show concept, I recently had the opportunity to ask Kara some questions about the show which is heading to Pleasance Courtyard this Fringe.
You have been performing at the Edinburgh Fringe since the 1960s. What is it about the festival that encourages you to return with new work?
There is nowhere better than the Edinburgh Fringe for finding an audience with an excitement for new work. Everyone on the street is either going to a show or coming from one. They are all excited. They’re all full of stories. What’s good? What’s bad? What you mustn’t miss! Nowhere else have I experienced such a welcome for new work of every kind. So where better to take new work than to the Fringe and where better than the Pleasance Courtyard that has an extra buzz all of its own. I am so fortunate for the last three years to have got my plays into the Pleasance where, as if there wasn’t enough excitement already, this place breeds excitement.
‘Helen Bradley: painter and storyteller’ will be your sixth “painter play”. For the benefit of newcomers to this concept, what can audiences expect from a show that fuses theatre and live painting on stage?
The audience will arrive to a smell of oil paint and the sight of a dark canvas with seemingly no marks on it on an empty stage and then suddenly this wonderful woman, age 78 from Lancashire, a woman they may not know, comes on and expresses her delight at visiting yet another art club. She paints as she talks and during that hour the audience can expect to see an entire Helen Bradley painting emerge upon the canvas with its wonderful bright colours and quirky Edwardian characters. The audience will hear her stories and take a giant step back into history.
Why did you choose Edwardian artist Helen Bradley for this year’s “painter play”?
I am constantly on the lookout for an artist to portray. But as I’m now 82 I tend to look for artists that have lived to a ripe old age. I was utterly delighted to be reminded of Helen Bradley one night when I saw a print on a friend’s wall. I knew about her because I had bought her books in the 70s for my daughter. She brought out books of paintings and stories of her Edwardian childhood which were absolutely delightful to read and look at for hours on end in the company of a small child. Her childhood intrigued me. She also was fascinating to me because she didn’t start painting till she was 65. She died when she was 79. The last few years were her most productive – she couldn’t paint the pictures fast enough, she said. I feel a bit like that. My creativity seems to be accelerating as I get older. I’m making hay while the sun still shines on me.
How will the show appeal to both longtime fans of Helen Bradley’s work and total newcomers to her creativity?
Fans of Helen Bradley would tend to be people more my age who might have read the books in the 70s and remember her really successful period mid 70s when she was on TV and radio and her work was highly sought after. (It still fetches huge sums when it comes up for auction today!) Those people who know her will love the play because it will remind them of all the great stories and images they knew, but I will be adding a lot of extra information that they never knew because I have had access to the family and to the family archives. So it will be a treat for them. For those that don’t know her but are lured in to learn of someone new, the fascinating stories of Bradley’s Edwardian characters and her colourful naive painting style will quickly beguile them. They will be transported to another time.
How have you approached the research for this piece of theatre?
I did months of research. I started with her books, published by Jonathan Cape. But Jonathan Cape had been taken over by Penguin, so I went to Penguin but Penguin said no these books are out of print, we can’t help you, we can’t tell you who has the rights. Well they did give me the name of a lawyer who eventually said that no, nobody asked about them for so long but they thought the rights had reverted to the family. Who are the family? I asked. They didn’t know so it was a struggle to find the family.
I then went through all sorts of galleries that claimed to know Helen Bradley very well. My final act of discovery was going on to ancestry.com. There I found Helen Bradley‘s family tree and was able to contact the person who was responsible. I wrote a hopeful letter saying “Could you by any chance be the granddaughter of Helen Bradley?” and she was and when I told her what I wanted to do, she got very excited. I’m very pleased she got excited about it and we worked together thereafter. She showed me all sorts of letters and photographs in a wonderful family archive. At my first preview [performance] I played to 17 members of the family and at least a couple of the older ones said they’d learnt things they didn’t know about their ancestor. The research was exciting. It is one of the most exciting parts of the whole process.
What are you most excited about performing at Edinburgh this year?
I just love returning to Edinburgh for the festival. I was born in Glasgow but my parents moved to Edinburgh when I was 20 so I’ve always thought of Edinburgh as home. I am thrilled to yet again return to the same wonderful flat near the Meadows, with enough bedrooms for the whole family to come for the month of August. For at least 20 years I came to every Fringe as Grandma to help my daughter Nina (Conti) as she built her career up as a ventriloquist. Now that job is over. The boys are grown. Now I am enjoying the Fringe in a whole different direction. It’s just such a privilege to perform and be part of this exciting conglomeration of creativity. It is true there is no money to be made at the Fringe and young people struggle dreadfully to make ends meet. I am lucky to be so old that I can throw my life savings into this passion. Well, if not now, when?
Catch Helen Bradley: Painter and Storyteller at the 2026 festival
Performers like Kara are what the Fringe is all about; embracing the energy of the festival and throwing everything into the experience. It is wonderful that the writer and performer was able to connect with Helen Bradley’s granddaughter when researching for the piece, it must have helped her get to know the artist on an even deeper level. Helen Bradley: Painter and Storyteller is based at Cellar at Pleasance Courtyard (venue 33) from 5th – 30th August (not 19th). Performances start at 11:20 (55 minutes), with the show on sale via the EdFringe website now.
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