Caithness Glass Factory, Wick, 24 February 2006

A scene from HOME Caithness. (Photo: Dominic Ibbotson)

DIRECTOR MATTHEW LENTON and his production team converted the cavernous interior of the empty Caithness glass factory on the outskirts of Wick into an atmospheric but decidedly chilly venue for this offering in the National Theatre of Scotland’s ‘Home’ extravaganza.

Like the Inverness production, this was a promenade piece, with the audience moving through and around the set. It began in one space, but quickly moved through to a larger arena, where a mock-up bedroom in an old folks home stood on a raised platform, surrounded by sand strewn deep on the floor.

The central character in the action was, Elsie, an elderly woman played by the excellent Myra McFadyen. Elsie has been a resident in this home that is not truly her home after the death of her husband, Frank.

She is visited regularly by her doting grandson, Marcus, but also by a series of imaginary characters from a range of movies, including ‘Once Upon A Time In The West’ (her television’s remote control serves as a six-gun in the resulting slow-motion shoot-out), ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, crime shows, and an operatic soprano.

The babble of cultural images and characters were augmented by sound clips from the films and other pre-recorded sounds, and a small band playing away in the corner (how they kept their fingers nimble enough in the cold is a mystery).

Only Elsie can see these celluloid visitors, but to her they seem to be as real as her grandson and the staff and residents of the home, an alternative imaginative reality in which she has an equally ‘real’ presence.

Lenton’s script left much that remained ambiguous in a colourful and often moving piece of semi-naturalistic theatre. Fantasy was allowed to run riot at times, but that dislocating sense of the absurd and unreal was always anchored by the all too recognisable human emotions at the heart of the action.

Elsie is finally inspired to make a break for her real home in search of her late husband. A surreal journey followed as she abandoned the relative security of her elevated room for the surrounding space, where she encounters a series of strange characters, including some drawn from her own memories of the past.

The scenario grew increasingly surreal, leading to a denouement in which the rending veil between worlds – between life and death – literally parted to allow her passage through. It could easily have been mawkish, but Lenton and his cast pulled it off in some style.

© Kenny Mathieson, 2006