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Calum's Road

Calum's Roadphoto: Richard Campbell

A touring production by Communicado and NTS

Calum's Road has become the stuff of modern folklore. It is the remarkable true story of one man's single-minded determination to challenge the powers-that-be and is brought to stages across Scotland for the first time.

Based on Roger Hutchison’s elegiac novel of the same name, Scottish playwright David Harrower offers audiences the richly detailed and unhurried description of a dying way of life in Northern Raasay.

Calum MacLeod, having battled the inaction of authorities on Raasay for years, sets off alone with a pick, a shovel and a wheelbarrow to build a road that will connect up the island. His daughter has been forced to board at secondary school on Skye and now Calum’s not having it any more. He wants to turn the tide of neglect and indifference and keep his family - and community - together.

His unpaid labour of love was to dominate the last 20 years of Calum’s life and leave behind a legacy – both practical and poetic - carved into the landscape he loved.

More information on this production is available at www.nationaltheatrescotland.com.

The critical consensus

Back projections conjure locations, Alasdair Macrae’s live music lifts the spirits but the road, for all we want to love its essence, is a bit of a trudge.

***(*)(*)Mary Brennan, The Herald, 03/10/2011

A lyrical, musical and elegiac ensemble production.

****(*)Mark Fisher, The Guardian, 04/10/2011

Rich, vivid, humane and sad.

Mark Fisher, Northings, 04/10/2011

In the end, though, the story told here is of such wisdom and significance that it sweeps objections aside, and moves many in the audience to tears.

****(*)Joyce McMillan, 06/10/2011

The romantically heroic and personally ambitious are comfortably balanced in David Harrower’s gentle recounting of the true story of Calum MacLeod.

Thom Dibdin, The Stage, 14/10/2011

Like the road itself, it all feels a little too late.

***(*)(*)Anna Burnside, The List, 21/10/2011

Built, as it is, on the foundation of a prose non-fiction, Calum’s Road is an improbable piece of music and theatre. However, as it is sung to its moving conclusion, there is little doubt that Harrower, Mulgrew and the cast have succeeded in paving their way from page to stage.

****(*)Mark Brown, The Telegraph, 22/05/2013

The capacity audience at the Traverse on the night seen gave it a fulsome reception, which there was much in this production to justify.

****(*)Bill Dunlop, Edinburgh Guide, 07/06/2013

As Calum’s Road winds its way towards its poetic climax, all the raw materials combine to create a poignant and emotionally resonant piece which explores its themes with a gentle and measured pace.

****(*)Edinburgh Spotlight, 07/06/2013

Calum’s road was built to connect people with the land and with their heritage and this production goes a long way to do a very similar thing.

****(*)Callum Madge, TVBomb, 13/06/2013


Features about Calum's Road

The road to immortality

Neil Cooper, The Herald, 20/09/2011

Where and when?

On Tour, from Saturday September 24, 2011, until Saturday November 26, 2011.

On Tour, from Friday May 17, 2013, until Friday June 28, 2013.

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