Roghainn Nan Daoine by Eilidh Whiteford. (The Stornoway Gazette)

THEATRE Hebrides are not only undertaking a new production which tackles an important and weighty subject matter, but are also taking a novel approach in the play's construction – literally making it up as they go along.

Theatre director John Wright and dramatist Toria Banks have teamed up with the local drama company to create 'Roghainn nan Daoine' (People's Choice) which tells of the social and political history surrounding the emergence of the Free Church.

Expanding, Theatre Hebrides director Muriel Ann Macleod says of the subject matter: “The Free Church at the time offered a new freedom to hear the gospel – people would walk from Stornoway to Uig to hear a new kind of preacher, word would spread on the island grapevine.

“It's an empowering story to think of people standing and worshipping in the fields and I think that's what people sometimes forget about and that's why we're doing it.”

The production is to be performed in Gaelic – but made fully accessible to non-Gaelic speakers with a simultaneous English translation via individual headphone sets.

Yet this technical leap forward is not the only 'first' the drama company are experiencing with 'Roghainn na Daoine'.

The very manner in which the play is being constructed – with John, Toria and the actors working together in partnership through a series of workshops to devise the production – is also a new approach.

“There is a tremendous sense of excitement as although we have a notion of the project as a whole, the roles of everyone, actors and directors, become very blurred during this process,” comments Director John Wright, who has worked with a large number of different theatre companies throughout his long-standing career.

“The process allows the actors to gain ownership for what they do, but they still need a guiding light which is where Toria and I come in,” he continues.

“Toria works on structuring the text and looking at the overall meaning of the script being created and refining what's being said. It's been going really well and together we have all been able to open up the scenes we've worked on and found the structural shape and design of the play.”

Having visited Lewis to undertake workshops with the actors involved in 'Roghainn na Daoine', both John and Toria are keenly aware of the prominence, which the Church still takes in our modern day society.

And both are finding the history of the Free Church's development on the Western Isles a very interesting subject, as Toria says: “It's fascinating! Obviously I didn't know a lot about the Church history in this area, but I did do a lot of research before coming up.

“It's different when you are on the island though as you get a real sense of the place and I've also been using the expertise of the company and cast which have really helped me to understand the feeling about the church.”

She continues: “The period we're looking at around the 1820s to late 1940 was a very tough history and it gets pretty grim in a lot of places – we want to do that justice, but at the same time we're creating a play and we're looking at finding the joyful things that also happened at the time.”

John adds: “The common denominator throughout the play and the characters is humanity and the style we are using is both comic and dramatic – we are using comedy to approach the drama head on.

“The hope is that in keeping the subject matter light, it allows us to go to those dark places and explore them more easily.”

As well as learning about Church history, John and Toria are also being absorbed into the islands traditions and are keen to celebrate these throughout the play – one example of how being the set construction and use of Harris Tweed to represent various landscapes: in our picture one character is struggling to escape from a peat bog she has fallen into, cleverly visualised through a pile of Tweed cuttings.

Says John: “We want to tell a story that is also visually exciting so we're being upfront with our conventions, not trying to hide anything, and as we hope this will be a rural touring production, we've put thought into easy set lay-outs and props.”

One aspect of the production process which the pair are finding not see easy to grasp however is the Gaelic language – but as with all good collaborations, the Gaelic speaking cast are keeping their mentors informed.

“The actors will rehearse in English and then once we know what's going on everything shifts into Gaelic,” explains Toria.

“Because we are working so collaboratively it makes it easier to put our trust and the responsibility on the actors. They are good at telling us what's going on and indeed there are parts of the play in which we are going to use the two languages together, English and Gaelic.”

Due to be performed in An Lanntair Arts Centre, Stornoway, in May, 'Roighainn na Daoine' certainly looks set to break new grounds in island dramatics.

And the sense of adventure, and of community, which surrounds the production is something that both John and Toria are thoroughly enjoying.

“We learn something all the time in this work, but from the point of view of this play we're looking at powerful events on people and their resilience, we're becoming more insightful as a result of working on this and it is more satisfying building something with a sense of community,” comments John.

Toria adds: “Theatre Hebrides has a clear sense of who it's making this play for and why. That's very important and very different from the 'bums-on-seats' attitude of other companies.”

 

 

Pictures Courtesy of The Stornoway Gazette