FringeReview Scotland 2024
So Long Wee Moon
Braw Clan
Genre: Drama, Fringe Theatre, New Writing
Venue: Arts at Loaningdale
Festival: FringeReview Scotland
Low Down
A beautifully imagined horror of poverty where the language delivers the beauty of the pain. It is directed with poise and grace in a venue bristling with the authenticity required. We are in a theatre of expression which brings our leid centre stage, but transcends the footlights.
Review
Nancy dances, she also sings. But in the midden of a house, dripping with the poverty of despair, these are fanciful dances and sangs of a heart that needs tae wander.
And so, it does, taking the rest of the body with it. Stealing the money out the tin, which was the annual rent money, Nancy escapes. Leaving her mother and sister to face the landlord wi nae siller, Nancy is awa. Five years later she returns, having sailed to New York, tried her hand at the singing and dancing and is now back to try her hand in the same Joe Corrie play that launched her career. Her sister, Wee Moon, of the title, is delighted to see her back, her mither much less so. And so, the revelations tumble, of what Nancy left behind, the bargains struck to allow their roof to remain above them and the reality of life in the Hollywood new era of talkies and vaudeville unwilling to welcome Nancy back.
And so, Wee Moon, takes her chance as the bargains that have been struck by the mother hangs over the ending and Nancy sees a chance of escape and redemption, but it is a visceral and appalling tale told.
This is no kailyard tale told with a Harry Lauder cheery number to lighten the mood. It is a story which takes the desire and ambition of youth and smacks it right up against the pain and torture of poverty. This is storytelling without the glucose or the saccharin of a mother’s love. It is brutal and all the better for it. Playwright Martin Travers decides not to pull any punches, and it makes this really hit home. Travers’ great gift is that you should know what is coming and as you look back, you wonder how stupid you may have been not seeing it, but when the twist and reality hits you it smacks you as hard as the telling does onstage to the characters. It may be, because dreadfully, we are trying to listen to the beauty of the language being spoken as it is not often heard. Not often enough used on a Scottish stage for drama, but often relegated to comedic effect, here we are trying not to miss the nuances and the narrative. But it isn’t that, at all. It is the quality of the dialogue which draws us into the exchanges and makes us part of this voyage of discovery. The destination – who knew Scots could deliver such impactful and powerful drama; we aw did – is terrible, and poetic and unkind.
But the greatest gift Travers delivers is to create new theatre, original drama that does not draw on the heart strings or make us swoon over a long-forgotten time. This is a period piece, but it resonates with theatrical ideals, using them as the launchpad and not the place where it sits to show its worth. It is neither worthy nor hide bound by its cultural beginnings. It is a vibrant piece of storytelling which adds to how we see ourselves.
But that draws such significant performances which, were absolutely on the money for this. Helen McAlpine as the mother, Annie gives no quarter, and none is asked. It is a spellbinding performance as a woman who strides across the story, vicious in tongue and in deed. She never lets up, though the unspeakable choices she is forced to make, and the unmentionable choices she does make are unconscionable – and her a romantic novelists association narrator of the year award winner tae…
As Nancy, Chiara Sparkes, literally sparkles. She opens the show with verve and then goes on to portray a woman possessed with spirit before spirits come and possess her. When she returned with a new accent which was more New Yoirk than Sheena Easton, it worked. Although it did grate on me to start with, over time it put distance between Nancy and the home life she left. By the time the end was in sight, she fell back to the cadences of her home and regretfully had to leave behind the fanciful notions of her dreams.
As Wee Moon, Morven Blackadder is all innocence and wide-eyed wonderment until the realisation of why she would be marrying George in the morning hits her. It is not a supporting performance but an equal to the strength and resilience of the other two. And we need another strong woman who may well be emerging but unphased by the suggestion of leaving the family home comes not because it’s an adventure, nor an escape, but because finding yourself at that age is so important to all of us.
The resolution of this mirrors the choices made by Annie as none of the possibilities open to these women are desirable. It makes a triumphant performance trio out of this cast as the collective feeling is of a passion shared onstage. This is an award winning company – Community Project Of The Year at the Scots Language Awards – who are not just telling tales but doing so with a cause in mind. This is not just about women forced into such extremes, but of a language that has the ability to reflect them accurately and the beauty to highlight the ugliness of all around them.
Directorially, Rosalind Sydney has captured all of that with great skill. This is a platform for both the story and the means of production which has all the hallmarks of something worth finding the damn venue for! One slight criticism is the fight. It needs a little bit of work as it felt hesitant and under rehearsed – perhaps the physical restrictions of the stage play a part, but it is a venue of choice. The set is both functional and speaks of the time perfectly – we feel right in the midst of that midden.
Aside from that this was a masterful piece of theatre which, though Annie would “gie her maist precious thing awa fur hee haw, ah woudlane gie this awa for aw the siller ye hae.
