Alasdair
C. Whyte was performing at Edinburgh Festival Fringe when the seeds of his new
cross-artform theatrical collaboration, MAIM, began to take root. The Mull-born
singer and songwriter was appearing alongside Aberdeenshire born electronic
composer Ross Whyte, who, as WHYTE, were presenting a cinematic audio-visual
live rendering of their debut album, Fairich.
Presented
as part of the 2017 Made in Scotland showcase of contemporary home-grown work,
Fairich: Live was an attempt to do something different to a straightforward gig
and add a more theatrical element to their performance. This was in keeping
with WHYTE’s own forward-thinking fusion of melodic electronica and Gaelic
song, and arguably set a rough template for MAIM, which opens at the Tron
Theatre in Glasgow next week at the start of an extensive country-wide tour.
The
roots of the new show began after Fairich: Live was attended by Muireann Kelly,
artistic director of Glasgow-based Gaelic company, Theatre Gu Leor. WHYTE were
in the midst of recording their second album, Tairm, when Whyte approached
Kelly with a view to doing something similar to Fairich with some of the
material he and Whyte had recorded. Whyte had already begun a Phd looking into
into the place names of the Torsay region of Mull, and the causes of their
disappearance at the Celtic and Gaelic Department of the University of Glasgow,
and his researches were already feeding into his songs on the new WHYTE record.
The
result of this in MAIM is a mash-up of contemporary and traditional Gaelic
song, spoken-word, dance and state-of-art audio-visual material that in both
form and content is a call to arms for future generations to hold on to both
their land and their language.
“It’s
about how the landscape changes and how language shifts,” says Whyte of the
drive behind MAIM. “There’s an inherent connection between those two things for
me, especially on Mull. Although, maybe ‘change’ and ‘shift’ aren’t the right
words to use when we’re talking about that, because things don’t just change or
shift by themselves. It’s actually humans who are responsible for making those
changes.”
MAIM –
pronounced like mime – means a state of panic, terror or alarm, and two songs
from Tairm drive the show, in which WHYTE perform live. With major input from
choreographer Jessica Kennedy of acclaimed company Junk Ensemble, as well as
cutting edge audio visual material by Lewis Den Hertog, actress Elspeth Turner
and singer, musician and dancer Evie Waddell also appear. All parties
multi-task a piece they helped make under Kelly’s supervision, and which has
clearly become something of a labour of love.
Growing
up in the village of Salen, close to Glen Forsa, an open glen at the foot of
Beinn Talaidh, Whyte wasn’t a native Gaelic speaker, but sang Gaelic songs from
an early age. It was through singing that he became aware of some of the things
that had happened on his doorstep.
“Little
by little, I became aware of some of Mull’s stories from those songs that I
learnt from my Dad. I also started noticing more and more the Gaelic
inflections in my Dad’s speech. In terms of landscape, Glen Forsa is really
significant, because probably as recent as the nineteenth century, that area of
Mull had a huge population, but now there’s not a soul living there.
“We’re
talking about the age of the Highland Clearances, with whole populations wiped
out for the personal gain of land-owners. All of that inspired me to try and
present the depth of those stories as best I can, and to try and do my bit to
try and make sure Gaelic is a living language on Mull, and has a future.”
Twice
nominated for the Hands Up for Trad Gaelic Singer of the Year award, Whyte has
been singing “as long as I can remember,” and began writing in Gaelic in his
late teens. His current collaboration with Ross Whyte as WHYTE is a deliberate
attempt to put Gaelic at the forefront of twenty-first century culture while at
the same time rooting it firmly in a tradition it can help keep alive.
“I
wouldn’t have the licence to do what I do without all those songs from the
eighteenth century, and I think it’s so important to use contemporary idioms
alongside that. And really, if things are going to change with language, we also
have to start looking at climate change as well.”
While
MAIM may be billed as a call to action, Whyte isn’t interested in alienating
audiences, and the show is fully accessible for non-Gaelic speakers by way of
subtitles and integrated BSL.
“Hopefully
the message is not too negative. I’m asking questions, and trying to use all
the tools at our disposal to put the Gaelic language at the centre of things in
a way that that offers opportunities for people to engage with that, and with
the huge songs that exist. We’re doing that just to try and make sure that a
younger generation are aware of those songs, and to do that we have to ask the
right questions.”
MAIM, Tron Theatre, Glasgow, March 6-14;
Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, March 17-18; Eden Court Theatre, Inverness, March
19; Lemon Tree, Aberdeen, March 20; SEALL, Sleat, Isle of Skye, March 21; An
Lanntair, Stornoway, March 24; Sghoil Lionacleit, Benbecula, March 25;
Castlebay School, Barra, March 26; Corran Halls Studio Theatre, Oban, March 27;
Mull Theatre, Tobermory, Mull, March 28.
The Herald, February 29th 2020
ends
Comments