Sunset Song – Dundee Repertory Theatre and Touring

Danielle Jam and Murray Fraser in Sunset Song at Dundee Rep and Touring Picture: Mihaela Bodlovic

Sunset Song was reviewed at Dundee Repertory Theatre where it runs until 4 May 2024. The tour continues to Aberdeen, Inverness and Edinburgh until 8 June 2024.

Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩

Coming into the theatre, there is a scent of peat in the air – almost acrid – then the vision of the earth floor, creating the performance area, surrounded by an array of musical instruments on either side, before a stylised painted backdrop of crops growing at ‘eye level’ from floor to ceiling.

The scent of the peat grows with the earth moving through the air as the cast picks up handfuls of earth to scatter or drop back into the ground. The director, Finn den Hertog, has worked closely with the movement director Vicki Manderson in creating repeated movements representing sowing, drilling, harvest and ploughing – the rhythm of life on the land. A rhythm that echoes the nature of life. The stylised movement is repeated often, just like the farming year.

This beautifully lit stage is admirable in creating a sense of place and a time over a century ago of the all-consuming lives of the folk of the land contrasted with lives elsewhere – life described as ‘English’ where study and learning can change people and take them into another life – away from the land.

This is very much an ensemble piece. The company of eight performers play a range of characters to tell of the life of Chris (Danielle Jam). Interpreting Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s beloved Sunset Song, Morna Young’s text has a clarity that deftly keeps the plot moving. Anchored in the land, the soil used as the floor creates an echo and emphasises these lives lived on the hills of Kinraddie.

The music that runs throughout the show is evocative of mood, character and place. Finn Anderson has both composed – and devised with the actors – music that ranges from close a cappella harmonised voices to using sound loops and scoring for instruments, all played by this formidable ensemble. The mystery of standing stones, the sheer hard work, the pressure and the joys life can bring are all enhanced by the sensitive choices the music makes.

Perhaps less successful, while being deliberately anachronistic, the contemporary wardrobe breaks any spell the language, music and characters achieve. This keeps the audience in the role of the observer, a technique often seen in European theatre work, adding to the complexity of this production.

Playing multiple roles and instruments besides showcases this abundantly talented cast. As Chris’s parents Ali Craig is a fearsome John Guthrie and his wife, Jean (Rori Hawthorn), is full of sensitivity and love. Her anguish and pain are visceral; her love of nature and the wild land are her comforts. As Will, the all-important protective older brother, Naomi Stirrat’s performance brings all the fear, bravery and love to the role. As Chae, Ann Louise Ross revels in the storytelling socialist who goes off to fight in France long before conscription is law. Chae and Chris’ scene on his return from France is profoundly moving – beautifully told.

Kirsten Henderson is a delight as the cheeky wee Marget – a great foil for young Chris. Long Rob is played with just the right amount of relaxed humour by Samuel Pashby in a tender, well-rounded performance. As Ewan Tavendale, Murray Fraser plays the role of the shy, lovestruck highlander who wins Chris’ heart with all the awkwardness and sweetness that creates the contrast with the ‘changed Ewan’ to perfection.

A thoughtful, highly stylised production that as it closed and the lights came up, the audience seemed to pause before preparing to leave; leaving Blawearie and the Mains of Kinraddie deservedly earns that moment of collective pause.

Fiona Orr