Storms batter shoreline communities. Sea levels rise. Skeleton Wumman tells her story from beneath the sea. Read more …
Once a disabled teenager, her life was confined to watching TV, and occasional visits to her local swimming pool. It was there that she fell in love with a young deaf man before she and her parents were swept from their home by a devastating tidal wave. Now, beneath the sea, she feels that something is about to happen. Snagged on a cable, a young man accidentally hauls her to the surface. He’s terrified, but slowly they recognize one other... Live music and sign language are integrated throughout the play.
This is a compelling tale of the enduring power of love that lets the listener dip through the vital versatility of the Scots language.
In the end, though, there’s a mystical and deeply poetic aspect of this tale – captured in Seylan Baxter’s gorgeous live fiddle music – that seems just beyond Conachan’s reach. And that leaves the text’s shifts between rough contemporary Scots and soaring poetic fantasy looking slightly more disjointed than they should, in what remains a wild and fascinating piece of stage poetry.
Another triumph for A Play, A Pie and A Pint – and another poetic gem from Gerda Stevenson with her canny ability to weave disparate ideas, genres and disciplines into a satisfyingly coherent whole.
A Play, a Pie and a Pint, Glasgow from Monday April 14, 2014, until Saturday April 19, 2014. More info: http://playpiepint.com
Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh from Tuesday April 22, 2014, until Saturday April 26, 2014. More info: www.traverse.co.uk
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