Eliza Drake’s bedroom is one of a child between girl and womanhood. She has a cosy duvet on her twin mattress, pictures of her family in frames on the bookshelf behind the bed, small figurines and a mesmerising moon lamp. She is restless for the storm is keeping her awake. Her older sister is getting ready to leave the nest, something about which Eliza is clearly nervous. In a night filled with visits from faeries she thought only existed in her childhood dreams, we take a journey with the fey as they reveal themselves, one by one, to Eliza, walking her through the inevitabilities of growing up.
Eventide, the fey of the dusk, along with the faeries of lightning and decay, tell fantastical backstories of their lives, loves and times with Eliza and her sister, hoping to give the girl some cherished moments of childhood and the confidence to go forth into the next chapter of her life.
The concept is lovely: faeries that come back to a child in the midst of their growing pains to explain loss and the necessity of both the light and the darkness of our world. The execution, however, is a bit too convoluted to drive home a central point. The characters are joyful and whimsical and do find moments of poignancy, but the cast as a whole do not find a cohesive rhythm or narrative to their fairytale.
12th, 17th, 19th, 24th of August 2019
This run has ended, but you can keep up Mermaids, the University of St. Andrews Performing Arts Fund, here