Balancing in Freedom

Iddo Oberski brings Balancing in Freedom back to the Scottish Storytelling Centre on Saturday 20 November, the show's return to the venue where it had its premiere. It's a 70-minute one-person show, written and performed by Oberski, with co-direction and creative mentorship from Mark Kydd.

Oberski is an Edinburgh-based multidisciplinary artist who retired from academia in 2019 due to ill-health. The show weaves together three very different strands of his life: growing up in Amsterdam as the child of Holocaust survivors, losing the ability to walk easily after a spinal stroke in 2009, and Rudolf Steiner's The Philosophy of Freedom. He doesn't stick to one way of telling it, either — he blends card magic, film, puppetry, live flute music, visual art, spoken word and poetry. He's joined onstage by Svjetlana, a stick puppet who acts as philosophical sparring partner, comic sidekick and, as Oberski puts it, often the clearest voice in the room.

It's been on tour since January 2026, following a sold-out, standing-ovation premiere here at the Scottish Storytelling Centre. Critics have called it 'exceptional' and 'spell-binding'. The production is funded by Creative Scotland and sponsored by the Authentic Artist Collective and the Salisbury Centre.

It runs at 7:30pm in the Netherbow Theatre, 43-45 High St, Edinburgh EH1 1SR. Tickets are £12.00, with a £1.25 handling fee per ticket, capped at four.