Theatre reviews: Metagama | Death of an Influencer
Combining narrative, songs, instrumental music and glorious images, Metagama tells the story of the generation of young people from the Outer Hebrides who, in the years after the First World War, left the islands for a new life in Canada and the United States, writes Joyce McMillan
Metagama - an Atlantic Odyssey, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh ★★★★
Death of an Influencer, Oran Mor, Glasgow ★★★
The beautiful show known as Metagama: An Atlantic Odyssey - seen briefly at the Traverse and Cumbernauld last weekend - is not a play, nor exactly a theatrical performance. It’s rather a concert, a ceilidh, an album, an audio-visual presentation, and a shared act of memory; and it creates an extraordinary atmosphere in the theatre, as it tells the tale of the generation of young people from the Outer Hebrides who, in the years after the First World War, left the islands for a new life in Canada and the United States.
The Metagama, which sailed from Stornoway in 1923, was just one of three emigrant ships which left that year, carrying 1,500 young people away from islands already struggling with depopulation and massive wartime losses. And like many modern migrants, those who accepted the “assisted passage” offered by the British and Canadian governments often found themselves bound for years to their first employer, as they paid off the cost of their fare; while some escaped over the border, for a new life in the “free United States”.
Written by Donald S Murray and writer, musician and researcher Liza Mulholland, Metagama: An Atlantic Odyssey tells this story at a leisurely pace, through narrative, songs, instrumental music, and glorious images by Doug Robertson, combining archive photographs with original artwork. Even for those without Gaelic, it’s impossible not to be moved by the obvious themes of love and yearning that shape the Gaelic songs and laments of the show’s first half, all beautifully sung by John Joe Macneil; those who left often yearned for the lost beauty and peace of home, even while they learned to enjoy the sheer rowdy energy of North American cities in the roaring 1920s, reflected in the show’s second half.
All of this is hauntingly captured both in the narrative - and one beautifully dramatised letter - delivered with love and skill by Donald S Murray and the legendary Dolina Maclennan, and in the huge range of music played and sung by John Joe Macneil with Liza Mulholland herself, Lewis singer-songwriter Willie Campbell, violinist Charlie Mackerron, and cellist Christine Hanson; in a show that tells a vital Scottish story full of immense contemporary resonances, through the voices and music of a truly remarkable ensemble company.
There’s not much ensemble spirit, by contrast, in the latest Play, Pie and Pint show Death of an Influencer, Matt Anderson's light-touch but anguished comedy set in the backstage dressing room shared by middle-aged actor and writer Gerry and his personal and professional partner Peter.
Gerry and Peter have just finished a preview performance of Gerry’s latest play, when their usual post-show agonisings are interrupted by the arrival of Gerry’s 17-year-old son Tyler, whom he hasn’t seen for two years. To say that Gerry has been a bad father is an understatement. He dumped Tyler’s mother for Peter, has failed to keep in touch, and doesn’t even know that his ex-wife is ill with cancer; instead, he prefers to snort cocaine, and obsess about his own none-too-stellar career.
He does know that Tyler has become an online content creator with over a million followers; but when Tyler explains that his fame has led to an offer to star in a Hollywood fantasy movie, Gerry reacts only with fierce envious rage and contempt.
In Eduardo Berto’s production, Anderson’s play makes a slightly sluggish job of untying this knot, in its later scenes. Yet if the harmony that finally breaks out on stage seems a shade improbable, the play certainly features three strong contrasting characters; brought to life with a fitting awkwardness, and some flair, by George Drennan as Gerry, Alexander Tait as Tyler, and Andrew Agnew as the long-suffering Peter.
Metagama: An Atlantic Odyssey will tour again next spring. Death of an Influencer is at Oran Mor, Glasgow, until 8 November, and at the Lemon Tree, Aberdeen, 11-15 November.
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