After an 18 venue , 20 performance tour in Scotland and England Autumn 2022, we find people are travelling to see this show two or three times. It is gathering momentum and there are many many parts of Scotland and Britain we have not reached. This show seems to touch audiences in many different ways.
I was involved in finding letters concealed behind a cabinet at the Glenesk Folk Museum , Scotland. This play comes from that experience.
This is the story of an archivist who becomes too involved in the material she is researching.
The Curator, The Musician and The Man take audiences from the Angus glens to the Klondike goldrush during the turbulent years of the early twentieth century. Using original live music and archives the show conjures an onstage alchemy in which the unknown story of separated lovers becomes a quietly powerful allegory of global forces continuing to shape our lives and identity. It binds the past to the present, Scotland to the world, and in this time of invaded privacy questions the morality of reading such private mail and turning it into entertainment.
Should the Curator reveal this intimate tale of a Scottish seamstress, purposefully hidden long ago and what is her relationship with the long dead letter writer?
Come in. Shut the door. Open the box. What’s inside? ‘An outstanding and heartbreakingly beautiful play’. @JennyGilruth, Scottish Culture Minister , twitter 17.08.21.
Five four star, one five star review Fringe 2021 ‘Powerful’ (Broadway Baby) , ‘A delight’ (British Theatre Guide) . ‘Confidently sweeps us away’ (Wee Review). Very enthusiastic audience responses ‘ perfect’ ‘faultless’ ‘this play must be seen lots and lots’.
Please see 16 minute film we made in Glenesk, in the true locations of the true story. Miss Lindsay’s Love in Lockdown https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyC1gIYlg94.. This short film is not a promo. It enhances themes within the play.
TO CREATE AN INTERVAL after the performance (just over an hour), the evening can conclude with a showing of our sixteen minute film Miss Lindsay’s Love in Lockdown (see above – if venue provides equipment); or live music performance from a handwritten manuscript of Scottish dance tunes not performed in 200 years; or Q and A – audiences have very many questions ; or a mixture of these elements.
Our 54th performance, Sept 2023, had 74 pre sales for a small village hall in the Scottish Borders.
Please see my website www.mariamacdonell.com for full details of the show, downloads for venues, press release, reviews and audience responses.
