Fresh force for change

Fugard's play, praised as possibly his most perfect piece of work when the Market Theatre of Johannesburg brought it to the Royal Court in London at the beginning of 1996, was written in the aftermath of the South African elections that cemented the post-aparthied regime. It is concerned with new beginnings and the rights to land that is under a newly democratic regime.

Its selection was less clinical, however much its Scottish premiere might fit easily into the canon of a company that has been driven - under its own various regimes - by the politcal agenda.

For director Natalie Wilson, who joined the company as a Scottish Arts Council trainee director, this is a first solo show.

''I found the Roya Court published text in a London Bookshop and read it on the train back to Glasgow from Prestwick, and found myself crying. It is a beautiful play and when I was asked to direct a play for 7:84, I kept coming back to it - it was saying 'do me'. The themes are pertinent to Scotland, although the play is about South Africa.

''The situation is more extreme than in Scotland, but the issues are about a new political process and about whether that gives freedom and hope to people or is plain scary - there are obvious parallels with the new Parliament.''

Just as pertinently, the show will tour - as 7:84 is funded to do - from Ullapool and Ballachulish to Dumfries and Stranraer to Buckie Fisherman's Hall and Lyth Arts Centre.

''It is about how people from a rural environment are drawn to the city, about the depopulation of rural areas, and why some people want to stay tied to the land.''

The fact that the issue of land ownership is certain to be high on the agenda of the new Scottish Parliament, and will be in the minds of the play's audience, was recognised at 7:84 HQ when the play was considered. Wilson is wary of speaking for the company's artistic director, Iain Reekie, about policy, particularly since there was nothing conscious in the programming of the piece, but acknowledges that Valley Song is a logical follow-on to David Grieg's Caledonia Dreaming.

''This one is also looking at hopes and dreams. I think 7:84

is an optimistic company, and dreams are important, whether for a country or an individual. You have got to have hope, but unlike Caledonia Dreaming, Valley Song recognises the fear of change.''

The play is, in more than one sense, a chamber piece. It is two-handed, Fugard specifying that two roles, that of the author (and narrator of the piece) and ''Buks'', the elderly farmer who has made a living from the fertlity of an oasis in an area of barren land, be played by the same person (Thane Bettany). His foil is his seventeen-year-old grand-daughter, Veronica, who dreams of becoming a singer.

Her casting was potentially problematic for a Scottish company, but a round robin to agents and a London audition produced Wendy Baxter, a veteran of Romeo and Juliet for the English Shakespeare Company and Coventry's Belgrade

Theatre. Wilson is delighted with her cast and with the addition of specially composed music by David Young, with whom she worked on 7:84's excellent Chaikin/Shepherd adaptation The War in Heaven.

Fugard's script specifies songs for Buks and Veronica and supplies the lyrics but no music. Young has filled the gap with a score that he plays on guitar live on stage as part of the performance.

''The whole play is like a song and the music complements it perfectly. Davey has created a cinematic score to accompany the songs and, from time to time, the movement.''

The recipe is a contemporary sophistication of the ingredients that made 7:84's name. Those who have watched the company's progress can expect to find the new show as moving as any in its history.

n Valley Song previews at

the Tron Theatre, Glasgow, tonight, opening tomorrow.