THE writer George Gunn's aim is to create a theatre of the north. He is artistic director the aptly named Grey Coast Theatre as the programme note explains, is dedicated to the belief that ''the indigenous culture of the North of Scotland needs to be seen and heard across the country and beyond.'' His play embodies
this idea.
Camster is not so much a single play as a series of 10 short scenes linked by a somewhat rich poetic narration. Apart from an atmosphere of the far northern coast, and what seems to be an undercurrent of folklore, there is no strong sustaining theme, and this is a weakness. There is an uneasy feeling of bittiness which detracts from the whole.
Each playlet is a two-hander, and though throughout the characters (played by Meg Fraser and Matthew Zajac who also directs) are called Helen and Seoras they have nothing except their names in common. This makes heavy demands on the actors and they make a creditable stab at it.
Gunn has easily avoided the pitfall of parochialism (and the possibly the lure of attempting to create a national theatre of the Pentland Firth), and the issues he deals are serious and topical, even when action is set in the past. Perhaps the most successful of the individual plays is the one in which an expat poet returns to his homeland to be feted and is revealed to have a murky past. There are some shrewd and sardonic hits in this.
But overall I got the feeling that Camster would be more successful on Radio 3 than in the theatre.
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