A THEATRICAL tribute to Scotland’s fishing communities premiers at Perth Theatre later in April before touring across the country.

Lost At Sea is inspired by the loss of playwright Morna Young’s fisherman father to the sea when she was a five-year-old child.

Featuring the words of real fishermen and their families, it spans the decades from the 1970s to the present day using music and the Scots language.

Outlander actor Tam Dean Burn will head a cast of nine as a skipper in a small fishing village where people know of the “untold war o’man versus the elements”.

Young says that fishing remains the most dangerous job in the world during peacetime – and even went out on a fishing boat from her home village of Burghead in Moray.

Fishing towns and villages dot the north-east coastline, and Young says her choice of language in the play – what she describes as a “colloquial version of north-east Scots” – partly came from the many interviews she conducted with people involved in the industry.

The play had a rehearsed reading in 2013 at Lossiemouth Town Hall. Previous difficulties with funding such a big cast production means that the production is only coming to life now, six years later. Dean Burn performed at that original reading, and Young says it’s “delightful” to have the actor return for its premier tour.

There are a few reasons why she conducted those interviews. There are gaps in history she says, with material focusing on a more nostalgic past than recent decades which have seen changes to technology, fishing rights and working practises.

Though inspired by the loss of her own father, she knew others had their own stories to tell. Widening the scope of Lost At Sea also put some emotional distance between her and the piece.

In addition to the interviews, Young took on a voluntary 15-hour shift on a small fishing boat out from Burghead to learn more.

“At first the skipper was like: ‘You can tell you’re from a fishing family, you’ve got sea legs’,” she says. “But five hours in and the combination of the movement and the stench of fish turned the world upside down. They are incredibly hard workers and there is an element of randomness, you don’t know what will come up. It’s always dangerous – you’re at the mercy of the elements. I’m amazed at what they do on a day-to-day basis.”

This year marks the 30th anniversary of Young’s father being lost. While the play was completed in 2013, its roots go back further.

“When I was a teenager, it was always in the back of my head to write something to pay tribute to him,” she says. “But I didn’t feel ready for years. I didn’t remember it happening, I was so young. That’s why it was important for me, the older I got, to make the connection and start to understand more about who I am, who my dad was.

“People say I’m like my dad but I personally will never know him. Writing this play feels like an opportunity for me to grieve.”

April 25 to May 4, Perth Theatre; May 6 and 7, Dundee Rep; May 9 to 11, His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen; May 14, Beacon Arts Centre, Greenock; May 16 to 18, Eden Court, Inverness; May 20 to 22, Kings Theatre, Edinburgh; May 24, Easterbrook Hall, Dumfries. www.mornayoung.com