A YOUNG theatre company which makes work that “challenges the status quo” is presenting two productions in its home city over the coming weeks.
Elfie Picket Theatre Company scored four and five-star reviews at last year’s Fringe with Ane City, a funny, frank one-woman show about a night out in Dundee.
Told in poetic Scots, it won writer and performer Taylor Dyson the Assembly Roxy Theatre Award for new writing.
Next month, Dyson and director Calum Kelly take Ane City to Dundee Rep, just a short walk down the Perth Road from the church hall where they present their new show over Valentine’s weekend. Written by Kelly, The Union & The Crown takes a satirical look at a dysfunctional marriage as it heads for divorce.
With Dyson joined by performers Tommy J Brennan, Belle Kinnear, Matt Lang, Charlie Wake and Jade Anderson, the piece uses sketches, musical parodies and folk songs to tell a whistlestop story of Scotland from the Picts to Brexit.
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Each performer plays a few roles, including well-known figures such as St Columba, William of Orange and William Wallace, as well as those now seldom spoken of such as Kenneth MacAlpin, who united the Scots of Dalriada in the west with the Picts of the north-east, and Agricola, the second-century Roman general brought in to control rebellious northerners.
Dyson takes on John Balliol, Mary Queen of Scots and Margaret Thatcher. “Thatcher got booed even when there was just a hint of her coming on stage,” says Dyson of the premiere at Edinburgh’s Assembly Roxy last year.
“It was a very positive boo in the sense the audience were invested in the play,” says Kelly, noting that he began the play in 2017 as a response to Scotland being faced with the prospect of being taking out of the EU against its will.
Set in a pub, the production’s main aim is to give punters a good night out, say the pair.
Like 7:84, John McGrath’s agitprop company who took his The Cheviot, the Stag, and the Black, Black Oil to church halls and villages in the early 1970s, Kelly and Dyson hope to take their ceilidh-style show on the road.
“I can’t deny that one of my biggest inspirations is 7:84,” Kelly said. “Like them, we want to take theatre to communities that maybe don’t have opportunities to see theatre. We believe in that strongly. I grew up on the Isle of Skye and that gave us the impetus to try to be a part of what they achieved.”
The Union & The Crown: February 14 and 15, West Church, Dundee, 7pm, £9.21 to £11.37. Tickets from Eventbrite: www.bit.ly/UnionCrown
Ane City: March 17, Dundee Rep, 7.30pm, £15, £10 to £13 concs. Tel: 01382 223530. www.dundeerep.co.uk, www.elfiepicket.com
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