Kirsty Findlay and Bethany Tennick will reprise their roles in Islander at the Southwark Playhouse, London. Picture: Jassy Earl
Summerhall sell-out hit Islander, winner of Musical Theatre Review’s Best Musical Award at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe, will transfer to London’s Southwark Playhouse from 2 to 26 October 2019 (press night is 4 October).
Musical Theatre Review’s Best Musical Award was set up three years ago to highlight the best of the genre in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe programme. Conceived and directed by Amy Draper, with a book by Stewart Melton and a score by Finn Anderson (presented by Helen Milne Productions), and given five stars by Musical Theatre Review, the judging panel agreed “that the use of loop technology in Islander was both innovative and brave in presenting Finn Anderson’s haunting a cappella score”.
Edinburgh Editor Fiona Orr commented: “The performances of Kirsty Findlay and Bethany Tennick were outstanding, particularly in their commune with each other. The piece really suited the space with lighting, design and direction clearly supporting the story. Blending humour, myth and character this is a truly astonishing piece of musical theatre.”
Eilidh stares out to sea and dreams of a new life beyond her lonely island. Myth and reality collide when the tide washes a mysterious stranger onto her beach, changing her life forever. Epic storytelling intimately staged with a contemporary Scottish folk-inspired score.
Kirsty Findlay (Olivier Award Nominated, Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour) and Bethany Tennick perform a whole host of characters, while weaving, building and layering their voices using looping technology to create an expansive, ethereal soundscape.
Exploring themes of loss, identity, migration and home, Islander was created on the Isle of Mull and is inspired by the sights, sounds and smells of the wind-beaten and wave-struck Western Isle.
Musical Theatre Review’s Edinburgh Editor Fiona Orr presents performers Kirsty Findlay and Bethany Tennick with our Best Musical Award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2019
In his review, Chris Grady wrote: “These eight creatives offer us an outer world of welcome, a theatrical world to open our senses and a mythic majesty for us to wonder about which is often, like our futures, “shrouded in mist and invisible by day”. I sense this will have a global life and it is most fitting to be a piece of musical theatre celebrated in the Made in Scotland programme.”
Musical Theatre Review editor and publisher Lisa Martland said: “We are absolutely thrilled to hear that our Best Musical Award winner Islander is transferring to London so soon after its huge success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. We feel very proud to have even played a small part in this latest news.
“Islander is not afraid to push boundaries, mixing latest musical techniques/technology with a mythical story focused on the struggle between old-fashioned tradition and how much to allow the contemporary world in. The beautiful score evokes traditional music but with a modern edge in its telling. A whole host of characters are brought to life by two delightful performers who have an enormous chemistry and the versatility to create the soundscape themselves as well as portraying so many roles. It’s wonderful that a wider audience is going to have the opportunity to witness this very special piece of theatre.”
Islander is conceived and directed by Amy Draper (RSC), with a book by Stewart Melton (National Theatre of Greece, former Southwark Playhouse Youth & Community Director) and music and lyrics by Finn Anderson (Off West End Award nominated).
Readers may also be interested in:
Islander: A New Musical at Summerhall @ Roundabout, Edinburgh – Review
Islander is named as Musical Theatre Review Best Musical at Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2019– News
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