Dogstar Theatre, Spectrum Centre, Inverness, 4 May 2006, and touring

The Seer performed by Dogstar Theatre Company.

IT SEEMS SACRILEGIOUS to criticise the work of a local writer on the second performance of a play premiered in her home town and about to begin an extensive Scottish tour.

However, forgetting literary hype, awards and well deserved accolades, the performance of any creative work stands or falls on its own merits.

Overall ‘The Seer’ is an early self conscious work by a writer not yet at the height of her powers. Had it been produced as originally intended several years ago for the Highland Festival it would have perhaps fitted better into the oeuvre of an emerging writer.

Produced here in the full glare of soon to be announced multiple literary awards it simply doesn’t ring true. It is as dated as the play’s reference to property in Beauly still being cheap.

Though Dogstar Theatre’s production values are high under the direction of Matthew Zajac, the pace of the dialogue is inconsistent. What builds with promise in act one doesn’t hold interest throughout act two. The play has the ingredients to be devastatingly satirical and humorous but just seems to run out of steam.

The build up to the end of act one when the world of the audience is revealed and the characters discover that they are being watched is tantalisingly fast paced. Clever dialogue initiated by Kirsty (Sarah Haworth) is the catalyst for chaos in Neil and Iona’s (Douglas Russell and Vivien Grahame) boringly perfect world.

The play with the audience and the artifice of theatre also holds promise, which rapidly dissolves as act two gets underway. Two characters are introduced out of the audience to take part in the action on stage, intriguing to any audience “what is it that they are seeing”?

This rapidly descends into a bad combined ending of karaoke and pantomime, with the audience being encouraged to take part in a sing along to “Wild Mountain Thyme”. As the audience erupted into appreciative clapping at the end of the play I couldn’t help but wonder if Smith had written in our participation as part of the satire. Now that would be interesting!

When the audience first enter the scene is beautifully set by designer David Ramsay for Iona and Neil’s carefully colour coordinated and ordered lives. The artfully thistled wallpaper in calming and thoroughly cool blue is a wonderful touch. Before the actors enter or speak a line we feel we know something of their world already, bought out of catalogue, devoid of originality or individuality, clean and sterile.

Use of colour by Ramsay (who is also the production manager) is wonderfully telling and spills over into the props and costume design by Kirsteen Naismith.

Kirsty’s tornado-like personality and her belongings are predominantly and strikingly red, while Sabrina (the quite consciously English new age incomer) is suitably clothed in smartly tailored earthy brown.

Sabrina’s interaction as a “real” member of the audience with what she calls the “badly sketched characters” of Iona and Neil reads comically like the action between a voodoo doll and victim. Criticism of the writing and the production are quite cleverly written into the play, the author gets in there first! Our other “audience” character Janice remarks that she will complain about the production and have the funding pulled so it will never tour.

Highland jokes and references might warm a local audience but a complete rewriting fully exploring the “Scottish metropolis” setting would be ripe for both biting satire and abundant laughs.

Curiously described as a contemporary “comedy of manners”, “The Seer” doesn’t neatly fit into this genre or perhaps any other, which isn’t necessarily a negative! Like the author at the time I suspect, it struggles to find its identity. It begs to be stretched still further, that is if it still holds interest for the author. For this audience member it seems to belong to a chapter now closed and I really have to question the decision to premiere the play at this juncture.

It is wonderful for an Inverness based Theatre Company to tour work by a local author but this production also highlights the importance of development for writing that equals high production values. A name isn’t enough to elevate a performance and being “lively” isn’t ultimately enough to sustain interest for two hours. With the play touring extensively it will be interesting to see how it is received beyond its premiere in Inverness.

(See Dogstar website for full tour dates in May and June)

© Georgina Coburn, 2006

Link

• Dogstar Theatre