Pitlochry Festival Theatre
Three stars
The dead bird carried lovingly by the woman at the centre of Isla Cowan’s new play becomes an unwitting illustration of the dangers of everyday tragedies that might happen if the young stray too far from the nest. The woman is Beth, the absentee landlady who makes a prodigal’s return of sorts to the rural cottage she once called home.
Sitting tenant in the humble abode is Alf, who has embraced the hippy idyll of country life that is the complete opposite of Beth’s city slicker existence. This is the case even if Alf’s young partner Vee has something of the cuckoo about her in their stab at creating an Eden to call their own. While the walls aren’t the only things crumbling, if the cracks could talk beyond the new lick of paint that attempts to wipe out the past, the old ghosts that might emerge could tell quite a story.
Burning down the house in an act of purging looks like Beth’s only option in Cowan’s hour-long prime time psychodrama, performed by director Sam Hardie’s cast of three in Pitlochry’s studio theatre. Symbolism abounds in Cowan’s well constructed script, brought to life by Rachael McAllister as Beth, Joseph Tweedale as Alf, and Trudy Ward as Vee, in an uneasy ménage that can’t help but open old sounds.
If the play can’t quite decide whether it wants to be an old school domestic melodrama or something more fantastical, it nevertheless suggests an episode of Tales of the Unexpected penned by Ibsen while channelling Nicolas Roeg’s film of Daphne Du Maurier’s short story, Don’t Look Now.
In the end, things are left hanging while Beth takes stock. After an intense hour, the birds may be singing, but what might happen next looks decidedly uncertain.
Ends
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