In August 2024, James and a team of performers and musicians presented JEST FEST: a pair of pop-up performances which was essentially James’ ‘poetry-play’ Jimmy Mack the Shapeshifting Jester staged across two dates, at two different sites in Edinburgh. The first part was at The Scotsman Steps, the second at The National Monument on Calton Hill – both happened at sunrise. James worked alongside filmmaker Chris Cook to document these performances. James is grateful to Peggy and Alice Marra, and Gordon McLean for their permission to use Michael Marra’s music in the JEST FEST film. The JEST FEST performances were presented by Sett Studios and were part of the Edinburgh Art Festival programme. They were generously supported by Creative Scotland.

(James Alexander McKenzie as Jimmy Mack the Jester, Rho McGuire as Narrator A, Constantine.. the Artist as Narrator B, Char Intihar as Tai Chi Cleaner, Tom Johnson as Tin Whistler, Cyclist, Accordionist, Julia Sorensen as Flautist, Written by James Alexander McKenzie, Directed by James Alexander McKenzie, Filmed by Christopher Lewis Cook, Edited by Christopher Lewis Cook, Sound by Rowen Henderson, Music by Michael Marra, Presented by Sett Studios and Edinburgh Art Festival 2024, A Red Hot Pecker Theatre Company Production, Produced with the support of Creative Scotland)

Jimmy Mack the Shapeshifting Jester is an absurdist comedy in which we get to know Jimmy Mack the Jester across a string of monologues wherein he performs as a motley crew of anti-hero alter-egos performing spoken word. The play is set in an imaginary lair beneath Arthur’s Seat called ‘The Auld Reekie Echo Chamber’. Jimmy Mack cannot leave this enclosure, and he is performing for a non-existent audience: probably as a coping mechanism for his alienated condition. Although the play is absurd and comical, it is also melancholic, existential, and personal. The monologues are characterised by wry humour, parody, absurdity, self-absorption, meta-theatrical devices (self referentiality; drawing attention to its construction and artificiality), references to Edinburgh, and reflections on art.