BOOST: Watch ‘The Tale of the Great Tay Whale’ at Dundee Fringe 2025 – “The very public life, death, display and dissection of the whale which could conceivably still have been alive today.” (Ad)

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A one man show written and performed by Neil Paterson.

The Tale of the Great Tay Whale is set over November 1883 to February 1884. During which period a juvenile humpback swam into the Tay estuary every high tide to be witnessed breaching by delighted crowds along the shorelines. 

Neil Paterson tells the story of the very public life, death, display and dissection of the whale which could conceivably still have been alive today.

He tells the story backwards through the experiences of four characters who encountered the whale – Professor Struthers who dissected it (he is only interested in dead whales – not living ones; the flamboyant ‘Greasy’ Johnnie Woods (pictured) who displayed the dead whale at his yard before sending it off on a tour of the UK – all at a handsome profit; the Montrose Harbourmaster who failed to retrieve the corpse of the whale from the North Sea and recounts the events surrounding its death; and a child who witnessed it alive on Christmas Day 1883. This way Neil begins with the bones and ends with the living whale for the audience.

Neil is an experienced performer who researched the history of the whale skeleton suspended from the ceiling of the McManus Galleries in Dundee while he worked there as a heritage officer.

More used to performing in graveyards and small venues, Neil does his own minimal lighting and sound. 

You can catch The Tale of the Great Tay Whale as part of Dundee Fringe a Sweet @ Keiller Centre on Friday 12th & Saturday 13th September at 15:35 (60mins). Tickets are available through the Dundee Fringe Online Box Office.