Dundee Rep
Four stars
Strangers on a train are
destined for disaster in Peter Arnott’s new play, which marks this December’s
forthcoming 140th anniversary of the 1879 Tay Bridge tragedy. That was when
what was then the longest rail bridge of its kind in the world collapsed,
plunging an estimated 75 passengers and crew to their deaths. Using this as the
source to imagine the inner lives of seven passengers, the result is a series
of thumbnail sketches illustrating the divided and poverty-stricken society
that existed in nineteenth century Scotland.
Once the mist clears on
Emily James’ revolving train carriage in Andrew Panton’s production, one by one
we get inside the heads of Ewan Donald’s idealistic school-teacher, Irene
Macdougall’s put-upon minister’s wife exposed to the slums and Anne Kidd’s maid
finally taking what’s hers. Leah Byrne and Bailey Newsome’s young couple are
chasing a new life in America, while things take a lurch into full-on music
hall as Emily Winter’s good-time runaway tells her story. Finally, Barrie
Hunter plays the sort of predatory sleazebag who still take liberties on public
transport and other places besides today.
With the storm clouds in
Lewis den Hertog’s video projections gathering behind them, each character is
illuminated by Simon Wilkinson’s spotlights, revealing still lives in limbo, as
crossing the bridge becomes a metaphor for the potential of fresh starts destined
to be cruelly dashed.
This is pretty strong
stuff to kick off Dundee Rep’s 80th anniversary season, with Emily-Jane Boyle’s
choreographed neo-gothic set-pieces breaking up each scene accompanied by MJ
McCarthy’s brooding score. The effect of such stylised Victoriana looks
somewhere between Pirandello and a 1970s portmanteau horror film, in which the
thrown together participants of the latter inevitably find themselves in the
waiting room of Hell.
While Arnott steers
clear of well-ordered social history in favour of something more daringly fanciful,
a local poignancy hangs over the show. Its final cacophonous moments are a
chilling masterclass in disaster movie style hysteria, in which the ghosts of
the past are brought scarily close to home.
The Herald, August 30th 2019
ends
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