A NEW production for adults and the over-12s tours next month, opening at Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre on September 7 before visiting Glasgow, the central belt and north-east Scotland.
Starring actors Ashleigh More in her professional stage debut and David McKay (River City, Outlander), NESTS mixes live action, film, animation and music to create a magic-realist tale of a boy on the run who befriends a crow and a man who lives alone in a caravan on the edge of town.
The show is a co-production between Frozen Charlotte, director Heather Fulton’s Moray-based, award-winning company, and Stadium Rock, which is headed by writer Xana Marwick and her musician husband Dougal.
“We’re not really a proper company, but Heather’s is,” says Marwick, who currently has a number of TV projects in development as a result of a placement with the BBC’s Writer’s Room in 2016 – then the only writer living in Scotland attached to the scheme.
Developed over periods of mentorship with playwrights Clare Duffy and Douglas Maxwell, NESTS is inspired by the writer’s drama work with refugees and young people in Edinburgh’s Niddrie and Muirhouse and with Platform in the east end of Glasgow and Toonspeak in the north of the city.
When she became a parent for the first time in 2012 many child abuse cases were in the news; distressing stories of people betraying those in their care in the worst ways imaginable. The political rhetoric was also being stepped up against the low paid and vulnerable, priming the populace for years of cuts to benefits and tax credits.
NESTS, Marwick says, “came pouring out of me as a response to all this and a cry-out into the world on behalf of all the children who should have someone looking out for them, but don’t”.
She continues: “With young people, I often think about the moment when a young person switches from being a ‘vulnerable child’ to being a ‘threatening young person’. At what point do we say: ‘right, you’ve had your chance’? Hopefully Nest is just a good, intriguing story, but all those thoughts are in there.”
Sep 7 and 8, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, 8pm, £12, £10.50 and £9 concs, £6 children. Tel: 0131 228 1404. www.traverse.co.uk
Sep 13 to 15, Tron Theatre, Glasgow, 8pm, £11, £8.50 concs. Tel: 0141 552 4267. www.tron.co.uk
Sep 20, Byre Theatre, St Andrews, 7.30pm, £10, £8 concs. Tel: 01334 475 000. www.byretheatre.com
Sep 21, Macrobert Arts Centre, Stirling, 7.30pm, £13.50, £11.50 concs, £6 children. Tel: 01786 466 666. www.macrobertartscentre.org
Sep 22, Beacon Arts Centre, Greenock, 8pm, £12, £10 concs. Tel: 01475 723 723. www.beaconartscentre.co.uk
Sep 26, Paisley Arts Centre, 7.30pm, £5. Tel: 0300 300 1210. www.boxoffice.renfrewshire.gov.uk
Sep 27, The Barn, Banchory, 7.30pm, £11, £10 concs, £6, £5 concs. Tel: 01330 825 431. www.thebarnarts.co.uk
Sep 28, James Milne Institute, Findhorn Bay Festival, 5pm & 8pm, £10, £8 concs, £5 concs. Tel: 01309 675333. www.findhornbayfestival.com
Sep 29, Banff Academy, 7.30pm, £5, £3 from Banff Academy drama department. www.neatshows.org.uk stadiumrock.org www.frozencharlotte.com
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