Latest news with #Hebridean
The Herald Scotland
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Dawn Steele on the 'daunting' prospect of her Fringe debut
She is about to make her debut appearance at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in a play which will also mark her return to the stage for the first time in more than a decade. Read more: The actress says the chance to appear in the play came at 'the right time,' ahead of her 50th birthday later this year, at a time when she was affected by the downturn in Britain's TV drama industry. It will also realise her growing ambitions to become part of the Fringe after attending numerous shows with friends in recent years and a desire to return to the stage. Dawn Steele will be appearing in the Fringe play Skye at Summerhall. (Image: Supplied) Steele is preparing to play a number of characters in Skye, a chilling family mystery, set on the Hebridean island of the same name 30 years ago. She will be taking centre stage in the debut play by award-winning author and Fringe producer Ellie Keel. Dawn Steele has been most recently seen on screen in the crime drama Granite Harbour. (Image: Newsquest) Steele will be starring opposite fellow Glaswegian James Robinson, who played the young William Wallace in Braveheart, in Skye, part of Summerhall's Fringe theatre programme. The play will be Steele's first stage work since she appeared in the comedy thriller A Perfect Murder, an adaptation of the best-selling Peter James novel, in 2014. Previous roles included the John Byrne plays Cuttin' a Rug and Tutti Frutti, the latter with the National Theatre of Scotland and David Harrower. Speaking to The Herald during a break in rehearsals, Steele said: 'I've not done any theatre for quite a long time. 'It's not really been a choice, but is just the way it's worked out. I'd love to do more theatre, but I just don't get asked. 'I was sent this play by my agent as Ellie, the writer, wanted to hear it read out loud before. She has produced a lot of theatre but this is her first play. 'When I read it, I did think: 'If they ask me to do this, I'm going to have to say yes.' 'In a way, I was scared. I thought 'I hope they don't ask me to do this. It's very wordy, it's a two-hander and I'll be on stage for a whole hour.' 'But I was just really compelled by the script. It felt quite magical to me.' Skye focuses on the main character of Annie and her siblings after they see a ghostly vision of their father on a beach four years after this death. Steele said: 'The play is about an incident that happened on Skye when the children were young, which changes the course of their lives. Annie retells the story with the help of her brother Brawn. 'I don't want to give too much away, but I would say it's a cross between a ghost story and a thriller. 'It's ultimately about memory, how it plays tricks on you, particularly in a family context, and what people hold onto. 'When I read the script I got a real feeling for it and I really loved the character of Annie. I thought she would be a real challenge to play. 'A big part of the appeal is that it's going to be on at the Fringe, which I've been to a lot with friends over the last few years. 'Everything we saw last year was really good. I do remember thinking: 'I would really like to do something here.' When you see really good theatre you want to be up there.' Keel is bringing Skye to the Fringe after producing a number of previous plays at the festival, including Bullring Techno Makeout Jamz and The Last Show Before We Die. She made her name as an author last year with debut novel The Four, about a group of boarding school students bound by a chilling secret. Steele said: 'It feels daunting doing this play because I've not done theatre for a while, but it's not like I've never done theatre before. I've done a lot. "The last two-hander I did was Blackbird, which was pretty daunting. With anything that is a two-hander or a solo show it is pretty exposing. It was also a very challenging play. I remember thinking: 'Oh my god, I'm never going to get through it.' Before I knew it we were touring it around the country. 'The thought of doing new writing at the festival really appealed to me. It's been really interesting and challenging. We've been changing stuff on a daily basis. It's been a bit like doing stuff with John Byrne. The play has changed quite a lot, but for the better. 'I'm so used to TV, where the script is the script, and that is it. Theatre is much more collaborative than TV. There's more of a process. It's not just a case of turning up and doing your lines. 'It feels like this has come into my life at the right time. I'm going to be 50 later this year. It's going to be a real challenge, but I want to be challenged and I'm really prepared to take this on, because I feel I can do it. I'm jumping in head first. 'Were doing the play in a room with 140 seats. I won't have played in front of such a small crowd since I was in my mum and dad's living room. 'All of those things are quite scary, but it's also why I want to do it. It's getting me back into the rehearsal room and doing what I really loved in the first place about acting before I got into TV. I obviously love working in TV, but it is very different. Theatre and TV are two very different beasts." Steele, who has previously starred in Hoby City, Wild at Heart and River City, has been seen on screen most recently in the crime dramas Shetland and Granite Harbour, with filming due to get underway on the next series of the latter shortly after the Fringe. However Steele admitted she jumped at the chance to return to the stage after her quietest ever spell for TV work recently. Steele said: 'I've worked my whole career. I've not stopped. I know I've been really lucky. 'But it's been really quiet recently. A lot of actors are not working at the moment. It is a bit of a buyer's market. People can pick and choose who they want. 'There is less money around. People are being very picky about what is getting made. There is just less getting made and there is less work. It just filters down. 'I'm not doing the play because I was desperate for work. I'm doing it because I really like the play. 'If there isn't a lot of work on the ground, when something comes along that makes me sit up and think 'this is really good' I'd be stupid not to do it.' To purchase tickets for the Fringe, please click here
The Herald Scotland
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Scots festival celebrates female cinema and island culture
The artistic director of the Sea Change Festival, which will be held on the remote Hebridean island between 19 and 21 September, explains: 'My parents were Scottish. After I became redundant, my auntie offered my grandad's house on Tiree, so my family and I moved there ten years ago. 'This was around the time of Me Too and a lot of great work was being done about increasing female representation in film. I remember going to an industry event and telling everyone about an idea I had about a female-led film festival. 'A few people offered to run sessions and help out. We received funding and started the first festival in 2018.' Jen Skinner (L), alongside colleagues at the festival. (Image: Sea Change) Skinner says that the festival, which is associated with Screen Agryll and will feature the iconic mobile cinema 'the Screen Machine,' has been rebuilding since the Covid pandemic provoked a generational change in film watching. Indeed, in the run-up to the festival, Screen Argyll will tour Mull, Coll, and Seil, screening a range of classic films directed by women at local venues across the islands. While things have been 'a bit quieter' in recent years, Skinner is excited for this year's festival, which will focus on women in Scottish animation. 'The first festival really demonstrated how important it was to be on Tiree and how it benefited the community,' she notes. 'You have the chance to get away for a bit and watch a film under the big open skies. It brings out a different element, and it is really lovely how cinema can bring people together.' Orcadian Amy Liptrot, author of the The Outrun, will introduce a special screening of the eponymous Saoirse Ronan film, while Shallow Grave star Kerry Fox will speak about some of her favourite collaborations with female directors including Fanny and Elvis and An Angel At My Table. Skinner says: 'I'm delighted we will be welcoming Kerry Fox to the festival. It's bringing me full circle in a way. My first joh in cinema was managing the Hebden Bridge Picture House, and we'll be screening Fanny and Elvis, which was shot in Hebden Bridge. 'We are also welcoming Alison Gardner from the Glasgow Film Theatre. We've wanted to get her to Sea Change for a while. She'll be hosting an 'in conversation' discussion with Fox.' Gardner will also take part in the Sea Change's industry programme; which will include practical sessions, networking opportunities, and one on one conversations. An attendee takes part in a filmmaking session. (Image: Sea Change) The involvement of the local community is integral to the success of the festival, Skinner says, providing an example from a recent conversation. 'I was speaking to a local man who is very involved and sits on every community board there is on Tiree,' Skinner tells me. 'I told him how excited I was about The Rugged Island, an archival film about crofters on Shetland, and how we have two fiddle players coming to play for us as well. I said there was no excuse for him to come now!' The Rugged Island, directed by Scottish filmmaker Jenny Gilbertson, has been praised as a 'tender and beautiful dramatisation of Shetland life,' and includes a live score by award-winning fiddlers Inge Thomson and Catriona McDonald. 'Last year, we made a Mama Mia film with 98 people from the local community,' she adds. We will hold sessions in the school and animation workshops with young people and families.' The festival liaises with a range of local businesses, as Skinner notes: 'A wild bathing company from Oban will be holding seaweed baths and leading swimming sessions each morning. We also work with local providers to secure accommodation and run the cafe and organise activities.' 'What about funding,' I ask. Will the festival be able to weather the budget constraints of a world which seems to value the arts less and less. Skinner responds: 'It is always difficult as we rely on year on year project funding. However, Screen Scotland has confirmed they will fund the festival for the next two years. That's been good as we can plan for the future.' As we wrap up our conversation, I ask Skinner what her driving motivation is? Why should people spend a weekend on a remote island a four hour ferry ride from Oban? Read more: When Ozzy Osbourne played the Barrowlands, 37 years ago today Why does everyone seem to hate Maggie Chapman? Smoked salmon, Irn-Bru bhajis and micro herbs: What's on the menu at Bute House? She pauses, before responding with consideration. 'It's important to increase representation on screen. Women working in the industry are still a small number, especially the higher up you go. There still aren't a lot of female directors,' Skinner says. 'We want to platform a range of different stories from those in the global majority and around the world.' Indeed, the festival's programme is very diverse, ranging from Motherboard, branded as 'an epic look at solo motherhood shot over 20 years and 6 I-Phones' to Sister Midnight, a feminist punk comedy set in Mumbai, and Spanish film Sorda, which tells the story of a young Deaf woman trying to have a baby.' Skinner sums it up well. 'You know, cinema can be political. The shared experience of watching a film together opens people up to different worlds and new ideas.'
The National
4 days ago
- The National
The 'gorgeous' island town in Scotland that's frozen in time
Now a conservation area, the community is one of the most authentic museums depicting the daily lives of crofters anywhere in the country. The coastal village on the Isle of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides, comprises several blackhouses which have been painstakingly restored. Blackhouses are a style of home which survived for centuries before almost disappearing in the latter half of the 20th century, according to the Gearrannan Blackhouse Village website. Gearrannan Blackhouse Village was occupied until the 1970s (Image: Tripadvisor) These structures consist of double drystone walls, a low profile and insulating thatched roofs, making them ideal for the Hebridean weather. Visit Scotland states that the village has now become a popular location for those coming to the island and has a number of family cottages available for self-catering accommodation, the nearby Dalmore and Dalbeg beaches and opportunities to observe traditional activities like the weaving of the famous Harris Tweed. See the 'gorgeous' town on a stunning Scottish island that is frozen in time The Gearrannan Blackhouse Village in Scotland has received much praise from visitors over the years, with Tripadvisor users giving the site a 4.6/5 out of 182 reviews One person said: "A really great museum and living blackhouse community to visit. They added: "The staff are helpful and willing to explain so much. Other blackhouses in that village are for holiday rental and a great way to sustain the museum and the Trust that runs it. Well worth a visit." A second visitor said: "Loved it here... Gorgeous views and lovely staff at the tea room... We visited with the dogs, and this was no hassle at all, which makes travelling with dogs so much easier... Great gift shop and great tea room." There are a number of things to see and do around the village (Image: Tripadvisor) Recommended Reading: Another added: "Such an excellent little place to stay. Stunning views. Very cosy. Clean. "Lots of supplies for self-catering. Close proximity to excellent walks. Great cultural/historical experience of living in a blackhouse, except with modern luxuries, of course. Close to the Callanish stones and Dun Carloway Broch, and Iron Age sites." One penned: "If you're on the Isle of Lewis, many stop by Gearrannan Blackhouse Village because it is the oldest surviving blackhouse village in Scotland. Very few visitors who pass through, however, realise that in addition to being a museum, it operates as a hostel and has its own set of self-catering cottages."
The National
4 days ago
- Business
- The National
Banner against Donald Trump unveiled near mother's Scottish birthplace
Lewis Revival – a vintage and house decor business just miles from where Trump's mother, Mary Anne, was born in Lewis – unveiled a banner this morning which reads "shame on you, Donald John". It comes as the US president is set to land at Prestwick Airport this evening ahead of a four-day private trip in Scotland. READ MORE: What are Donald Trump's family and business ties to Scotland? All to know The business previously unveiled the same banner in March after Trump's infamous meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the White House. But it was subsequently taken down by the local council. The shop's owner, Sarah Venus, told The National that the banner – which features dozens of signatures and anti-Trump messages from both locals and tourists (below) – will remain until this evening. "Down with Trump and Fascism," wrote one person, for example. Another added: "Not in my name! Shame on you Donald John." "No tyrant should be leading our country," said Anita. (Image: Ralph Tonge Photography) It will then be taken on a tour of the island, making an appearance at various prominent locations. Trump is expected to visit both his golf clubs north of the Border – in Aberdeenshire and South Ayrshire – during the four-day visit. READ MORE: Meet the Hebridean shop owners taking a stand against Donald Trump He is also set to meet with Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Scotland's First Minister John Swinney. The visit is expected to be met with large scale protests, with the policing operation required to handle it and the visit more generally set to be huge – with Police Scotland seeking officers from other areas of the UK for support.
Scotsman
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Night Waking: Mull Theatre's 'darkly funny' new drama based on the Hebrides-set novel by Sarah Moss
Set on a fictional Hebridean island, Sarah Moss's powerful 2011 novel Night Waking is to have its first stage adaptation at Mull Theatre this autumn, writes Joyce McMillan Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Motherhood and apple pie. It's the phrase we use for the things that our secular society still holds sacred, the things no politician dares to disparage; and still, people often talk of motherhood as the defining experience of a woman's life - the greatest, the most joyful and the most empowering. Nicola Jo Cully stars in Night Waking | Contributed The truth about motherhood, though, is often very different, particularly in an age when women often live far from traditional family support networks; and that's the situation faced by Anna, the central character in Sarah Moss's powerful 2011 novel Night Waking. Desperately trying to pursue her academic career as a social historian, but struggling to combine her work with the sheer hard labour of mothering two young sons, Anna faces a new life on the fictional Scottish island of Colsay, where her husband has both work and landowning family connections, while she - from a more ordinary class background - knows no-one. Her struggle to hold onto her sanity and identity under these pressures is Sarah Moss's theme; and it's one that tens of thousands of readers have found both compelling, and fiercely recognisable. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Now, though, Night Waking is to have its first stage adaptation, commissioned by Mull Theatre's artistic director Rebecca Atkinson-Lord from Irish-Mauritian writer Shireen Mula; and between them - with actress Nicola Jo Cully - they are looking forward to navigating the complexities of Anna's situation for audiences across Scotland. Contributed 'The book is so much about Anna's voice and experience,' says Atkinson-Lord, 'that we found in the end that this was only going to make sense as a monologue, a solo show. 'Anna's inner life is so complicated, though - with her experience as an isolated mother in the foreground, and then all the strands to do with her changing relationship with the island and its people, and her work which reflects on how people have coped with parenthood at different times in history - that the story still features a huge number of characters, including Anna's two very vividly drawn little boys, all of whom are played by Nicola Jo. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'It's going to be a two-hour play, with an interval, because there are so many layers to Anna's story; and as someone who - like a very high proportion of Mull's population now - came to live here from somewhere else, I'm completely fascinated by the way this story reflects on the experience of colonisation, and of losing the power to control your own fate. It's about how Anna - partly through her academic work - begins to understand that aspect of the island's history, and its impact on the people; while at the the same time recognising how the experience of motherhood has in some ways 'colonised' her own body, and shaken her sense of autonomy.' Shireen Mula | Helen Murray 'The book is also,' says Shireen Mula, 'a really beautiful and sometimes poetic piece of writing, with a strand of very dark comedy, and a really sharp wit. So although the play's underlying themes are so serious, there is also an element of real fun and enjoyment in the storytelling. 'It's also noticeable that readers do have very different responses to Anna as a character, with some reacting very strongly against her simply because her experiences and feelings challenge so many conventional assumptions about motherhood. So is there some kind of abuse here? Is she neglecting her children? Or is she just being honest about the complexity of a mother's feelings, in a way that's still quite unusual?' 'What we're hoping,' adds Atkinson-Lord, 'is that the play will be complex and rich enough speak to everyone in the audience - to those who have always lived here and those who have come here, as well as the audiences we encounter on tour. Night Waking really is a story about the complexity of all those relationships, and their deep historic roots; and we're thrilled to be bringing it to theatre audiences here, and across Scotland, this autumn.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad
