How to people behave when removed from society’s mores and are thrown to the claim of nature?
At the start of WW2, Robert (Martin Richardson) and John (James Rottger), two young tweeded and Fair Isled Cambridge graduates and keen pioneer naturalists, arrive on a remote Hebridean island with a remit from the Ministry to study wildlife. The only human inhabitants are the cussèd old Kirk (Crawford Logan) and his lovely niece Ellen (Helen Mackay). The rest is birds and sheep.
After a few whiskies, Kirk lets slip that he knows the real reason the men are on the island is connected to research into germ warfare, thereby shifting perspectives and opening dangerous and fateful possibilities.
Against a set in the shape of waves and to the sometimes deafening sounds of waves the dynamics between the four disparate characters are played out with great skill.
The perfectly dressed cast bring Greig’s dark and at times highly comic dialogue brilliantly to life. Robert is the cerebral Englishman whose ‘gull eyes’ view everything with cold academic detachment and has the natural assumption of dominance of his class.
John is the decent anglified Edinburgh ‘saver’ to his companion’s reckless ‘gambler’ who is constantly apologising as he ‘blinking’ and ‘bloodies’ his way through life. Kirk claims all rights to the island, including those of his niece and is full of cunning wiles worthy of a harsh Para Handy. Crawford Logan captures this grasping old Calvinist with absolute credibility and shows his great gift with accents as he switches easily to the English captain at the end.
Helen Mackay gives a crystal clear performance as the open and eczema ridden Ellen who has committed the sin of cinema and is liberated to sexual freedom by the death of her uncle for whom she feels a “warm hate”. Her character is radical in spite of her apparently narrow island existence and she seeks another kind of life with her own ‘Laurel and Laurel’. Her influence turns the table on events with John’s handy false memory skill coming in to play at the end as the roar of war thunders in the background.
David Greig’s haunting play was first performed in 2002. His tale of the implications of time catching up with a timeless place is another hit for Firebrand.
Contains nudity
Tour continues to:
Birnam Arts, Birnam
Sunday 5 October, 7.30pm
Tait Hall, Kelso
Tuesday 7 October, 7.30pm
Eastgate Theatre, Peebles
Thursday 9 October 7.30pm