“I’ll tak’ye on the road again, when yellow’s on the broom.” Read more …
Adapted from Betsy Whyte’s beloved autobiography, The Yellow on the Broom is a heartfelt, funny, and rich account of human endeavour. Filled with music, song, and an array of vibrant characters, Bessie’s story both passionately tells of her life and vividly portrays the prejudice faced by Travellers.
In 1930s Perthshire, Bessie Townsley is growing up in the Travelling community. Her mother and father teach her the ways of the land, but their lifestyle is under threat. With winter approaching, the family settle in Brechin for the season. There, Bessie must attend 100 days of compulsory schooling and although she shows promise in the classroom, the travelling life she adores is viciously attacked by those around her.
Andrew Panton’s production takes a while to engage the audience as the family encounters prejudice and also unexpected kindness from the people along the way.
The result of this is a deceptively gentle portrait of a hidden history and a way of life all but domesticated out of existence, but which lives on here in a moving elegy that’s still in bloom.
From its opening moments, Andrew Panton’s production for the Dundee Rep ensemble strikes an appealing balance, convincingly evoking both the rich culture and affinity with nature of the traveller lifestyle while acknowledging its darker challenges.
This fine ensemble succeed in capturing both the joy of the world Bessie remembers, and the shadows that lengthened over it in the late 1930s.
This is a brilliant show to launch Dundee Rep’s new season. It’s a colourful, wistful story about a woman with spirit at a time when women were more commonly encouraged not to have opinions.
For all this, one can’t help but feel there is something a tad couthie, not to say laboured, in the play’s straight delivery of Whyte’s chronicle.
Anne Downie--The Yellow on the Broom
Dundee Rep Theatre, Dundee from Tuesday August 28, 2018, until Saturday September 22, 2018. More info: www.dundeereptheatre.co.uk
macrobert, Stirling from Wednesday September 26, 2018, until Saturday September 29, 2018. More info: www.macrobert.org
RSS feed of Theatre reviews