Tron
Theatre, Glasgow
Four
stars
Storm
clouds have been gathering over the Isle of Mull, off Scotland’s west coast,
since time immemorial. As this fascinating live collage of music, word and
movement makes determinedly and poetically clear, in terms of land and
language, the last century or so has seen things gather apace in dramatic
fashion.
Instigated
by Alasdair C. Whyte of Gaelic-based electronic duo, WHYTE, who appears onstage
throughout, this is a fusion of deeply personal responses to how the Gaelic
language has been all but wiped out. Over the 75-minutes of Muireann Kelly’s
slow-burning production for Theatre Gu Leor, Whyte and co’s dramatic meditation
looks to the pockets of island communities that once spoke and sang the
language, but became collateral damage to those with grander schemes and deeper
pockets.
The
litanies of lived experience from Whyte and fellow performers Elspeth Turner
and Evie Waddell are set against the brooding atmospheric live melodies by WHYTE’s
other half, Ross Whyte. Out of this emerges a patchwork of real-life stories
that meld together alongside Jessica Kennedy’s choreography to mine something
bigger.
Set
against a backdrop of projected land masses conjured into being by Lewis Den
Hertog on Jen McGinley’s set, the Gaelic poetry translated by way of English
subtitles is heightened even more by Waddell introducing British Sign Language
into the mix in a monologue made even more powerful by its silence.
While
the experience of MAIM (it translates as panic, terror or alarm) comes from
close to home, there are nods to more universal reverberations, so an initial
sense of mourning eventually gives way to defiance and renewal in a show of
collective strength. Out of this comes a bubbling hybrid that is part elegy,
part call to arms as those caught in the crossfire learn to push, pull, give,
take, ebb, flow and above all support each other in order to rise again.
The Herald, March 12th 2020.
ends
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