Move~Gluasad, the debut show from Julia Taudevin and Kieran Hurley’s new production company, Disaster Plan, will have its world premiere on the Isle of Lewis in January 2020, with an additional Glasgow performance at Celtic Connections. Tickets for all Lewis performances are on sale from today.
Inspired by ancient keening rituals, Move~Gluasad is a multi-story performance about migration, loss and the common human experience of grief. Weaving together multi-lingual storytelling, choral soundscape and Gaelic song, five women build a picture of the ebb and flow of people across the globe through the ages.
Incorporating musical styles as diverse as Gaelic psalm singing, Swahilli lullabies, Epirus Polyphony and Canntearchd Move~Gluasad celebrates humanity and mourns a loss of kinship across cultures.
Move~Gluasad is written and directed by Julia Taudevin and performed by Julia with a cast that includes Mairi Morrison, Beldina Odenyo and Nerea Bello. Kieran Hurley is dramaturge, Anna Porubcansky is musical director, Ewan Downie movement director, Katharine Williams lighting designer and Catherine Barthram costume designer.
The show will be staged at four community venues across Lewis – Kinloch Community Hub, Carloway Community Centre, Uig Community Centre and Back Community Centre – at the end of January, in partnership with Lewis-based arts organisation sruth-mara, in association with An Lanntair arts centre in Stornoway, and with support from Creative Scotland’s Open Fund. Tickets can be booked in advance via An Lanntair’s box office. It will then be staged at Platform in Easterhouse, Glasgow, on the final night of Celtic Connections on Sunday 2 February.
Audience members at each show will be invited to an optional pre-show singing workshop, conducted principally in Gaelic, where the cast will teach some of the songs and singing techniques used in the show.
Julia Taudevin and Kieran Hurley’s previous collaborations include the acclaimed theatre shows Beats, Chalk Farm, Rantin, Heads Up, and Blow Off. A film version of Beats was released in cinemas earlier this year.
Kieran Hurley said: “Disaster Plan is the formalisation of the long-term collaboration between myself and Julia and is our commitment to continuing to make radical, accessible, exciting, cross-art-form theatre for a diverse range of audiences across Scotland and beyond.”
Julia Taudevin said: “We are delighted to be launching with this ambitious new multi-cultural work at a time when insularity and xenophobia is rife and I am over the moon to be returning to my motherland to premiere it.”
Andrew Eaton-Lewis, director of sruth-mara, said: “We’re really excited to be working with Disaster Plan on their first project. Move~Gluasad was first performed as a work in progress at Uig Community Centre and An Lanntair last year with a cast of three, following a week of development supported by sruth-mara. Having seen that early version of the show, and the reaction from audiences here, I have no doubt that this will be an incredibly powerful piece of theatre, and it’s great that Lewis audiences will get to see it before anyone else.”
Elly Fletcher, CEO of An Lanntair, said: “I am very happy that An Lanntair can support the world premiere of this exciting new theatre production by Disaster Plan in four community venues across the Isle of Lewis. I was privileged to have the chance to see a work-in-progress performance of the piece early last year, and I can’t wait to see the finished show when it come to the island this January.”
Move~Gluasad will be staged at the following venues:
Monday 27 January – Kinloch Community Hub, Old School, Balallan
Wednesday 29 January – Carloway Community Centre
Thursday 30 January – Uig Community Centre
Friday 31 January – Back Community Centre
Sunday 2 February – Platform, Easterhouse, Glasgow (as part of Celtic Connections)
Move~Gluasad is being promoted by An Lanntair as part of #winterinthewild, a new campaign promoting the Outer Hebrides in winter, alongside winter shows at An Lanntair by Alan Bissett, Karine Polwart, Mairi Campbell and Willie Campbell of the band Astrid. For updates follow #winterinthewild on social media, or visit www.lanntair.com for programme information and to purchase tickets.
Tickets for Move~Gluasad’s four Lewis dates can be booked from today via An Lanntair’s box office on 01851 708 480 or www.lanntair.com. Tickets for the Celtic Connections show can be booked via www.celticconnections.com and www.platform-online.co.uk.
To request interviews or images, please contact Andrew Eaton-Lewis on andrew@lanntair.com or 01851 708488.
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