DG ARTS FESTIVAL: PIRATES & MERMAIDS
Written by author on May 12, 2014
Bell Rock’s Poorboy Theatre Company’s Pirates and Mermaids has just completed a successful run at the Scottish Storytelling Centre, Edinburgh, as part of the city’s eponymous festival. It received four-star reviews, was designated a ‘Must See’ show by The Stage; and performer Jeremiah Reynolds was nominated for Best Solo Performer for The Stage Awards for Acting Excellence.
The show tours with of one technician and one actor and previewed in both New York and Glasgow in 2012 is at the Edinburgh Fringe 2013 at the Scottish Storytelling Centre and will play again in New York later in 2013.
This is a passionate, moving and funny transatlantic love story set in both New York and a small coastal village in Scotland and Dumfries and Galloway Arts Festival is delighted to host the production at two of its most intimate venues in Thornhill and Gatehouse.
The tale interweaves the experiences of its young adult protagonists with story of The Selkie – the bedtime story they were read when they were children – along with welcome and unwelcome advice from their American and Scottish grandparents.
Interaction and connection is important to a Poorboy production and Pirates and Mermaids feeds its audience sweets, asks to look at photos of their own loved ones on their mobile phones, plays a childhood game with them and gives them time to write a postcard to someone they love. The story continues in the days after the show as photos extending the story are texted to audience members and their postcards are sent on to their intended recipients. Although often theatrical and performative in its storytelling, it is also an interactive experience and event, a ‘thought worm’ of a story that convinces its audience of its reality and asks them to think about their own story.
This is an uplifting and touching interactive work in Scots and English: a fairytale for grown ups’ as is aimed solidly at adults, young and old – specifically those brave souls who are experiencing, or who are willing to remember, what it’s like to wonder if you are worthy of love. It plays especially well to women of any age.
Pirates and Mermaids takes place at The Mill on the Fleet, Gatehouse, on Saturday, 17 May, at 2pm and 4pm; and at Thomas Tosh in Thornhill, on Sunday, 18 May, at 12pm, 2pm and 4pm.
Tickets from the venues or the Midsteeple Box Office, Dumfries, tel: 01387 253383. For a programme visit www.dgartsfestival.org.uk
