Theatre Preview: Otter Pie, 26 – 29 November, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh

Described as “a darkly humorous exploration of the pursuit of Scottishness and happiness in the 21st century”,  Otter Pie is a re-interpretation of Scottish novel Sunset Song from Glasgow theatre company Fish & Pie running from Wednesday 26 – Saturday 29 November.

An original production devised by the company, the show is also described as “irreverent, moving and laugh-out-loud funny”.

Otter Pie comes to Traverse following two sell-out runs at Glasgow’s Tramway and full details can be found on the Traverse website.

Theatre Review: Sunset Song, 30 September, King’s Theatre, Edinburgh

Sunset Song, the first instalment of Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s highly regarded Scot’s Quair trilogy has always been plagued by an identity crisis of sorts. At the time of its 1971 BBC adaptation the novel was facing consignment to the literary graveyard as its life in print seemed under threat.

Thanks to the success of that screenplay however and a guaranteed place on secondary school library shelves the past three decades have seen a revival in its fortunes, peaking in 2005 when it was voted Best Scottish Book of All Time.

Now, as His Majesty’s Theatre company reaches the penultimate leg of its national tour at Edinburgh’s King’s Theatre, Sunset Song reaches out to a new audience, challenging them to inspect and re-evaluate their own relationship with their land and heritage.

A sense of schizophrenia abounds at the heart of the production with Grassic Gibbon’s protagonist Chris Guthrie constantly referring to two Chrises. There’s the Chris bound to a life of toil on the land of her parents’ farm in the Howe o’ the Mearns and then there’s the second Chris, the Chris lauded as the family’s scholar and encouraged by her father to stick to her books with the promise of a liberating career in teaching.

Theatre Preview: Sunset Song, 30 September – 4 October, King’s Theatre, Edinburgh

Here’s a blast from the past: a new adaptation of Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s Sunset Song, a book well-remembered by myself as a staple of English classes in High School, comes to Edinburgh’s King’s Theatre from Tuesday 30 September – Saturday 4 October.

The first of Gibbon’s A Scots Quair trilogy, Sunset Song provides an insight into the life of a young woman growing up in rural Scotland in the 1920s and 30s. Her story, and that of those around her, reflect wide-reaching issues – the affects of war, national identity and the impact of modern ways on rural life are dealt with unflinchingly.

Hannah Donaldson plays the central character of Chris Guthrie with Joyce Falconer, Alan McHugh, Finn Den Hertog, Rod Matthew, Sally Reid and Graeme Stirling also star in the play.

Full details are available on the King’s Theatre website.

Read the itsonitsgone review of Sunset Song