OneTouch Theatre, Eden Court, Inverness, 29 August 2009

THE LAST islander left St Kilda (or Hiort in Gaelic) on 29th August 1930. To mark the event, Pròiseact nan Ealan (Gaelic Arts Agency) organised of a series of events throughout Scotland to commemorate this evacuation.

Angus Peter Campbell

In recent years the St Kilda story has taken on the mantle of mystery, curiosity and romance, with most of the 21st century population unable to grasp what it must have meant to live, hand by mouth, under such remote and inhospitable conditions.

This series of St Kilda Day events were a potentially ideal way of dispelling some of the mis-truths of the evacuation, and a chance to tell the real stories of the last few islanders who had to give up their traditional way of life, and move to the mainland – or die.

The Inverness contribution to the series promised an evening of superb literary and musical sets, with a high profile list of performers, and was preceded earlier in the day, by a showing of film footage and photographs of the evacuation.

Gaelic poet and broadcaster, Angus Peter Campbell, opened the evening with a bi-lingual presentation on the links between song and language and its importance in the history of St Kilda, noting in particular the fact that out of over 700 academic articles and pieces of writing on Hiort, only two of them were written by writers from St Kildan backgrounds.

The remainder of the first half comprised a capella sets of songs from Lewis singer Isobel Ann Martin and Anne Martin from Skye, with each singer singing two songs then leaving the stage for the next singer then the first singer returning, etc….

It might have been less distracting for the audience, and also made a clearer picture of the St Kildan way of life, had the singers performed their sets in entirety. The overly tall music stands did not help either. Songs from Isobel Ann included ‘Mo Ghaol Òigfhear a Chùil Duinn’, ‘Cumha na Hiortaich’ and the Lewis song ‘An Ataireachd Àrd’.

Anne Martin gave a set of all-St Kildan songs, including the lovely ‘Do dha Shùil Bheag bhiollac’ , ‘Leac na Gadaig’ and ‘Mo Ghille Dubh’. They were joined by singers Fiona Gress Mackenzie and Anna Murray in a first set finale, with a work song.

Angus Peter Campbell opened the second half again with his emotive piece on the ‘Itean, a Hiort chun a Chrimea’ – ‘Feathers from Hiort to the Crimea’. The remainder of the concert comprised mainly new and stylistically diverse compositions from Lewis singer songwriters Calum Martin and Fiona Gress, accompanied by amongst others Brian Ó hEadhra on guitar and fiddler Bruce Macgregor, while Lisa Mulholland on piano, box and vocals was a nice addition to the line-up.

The range of styles employed in the new arrangements would have been surely unrecognised by the St Kildans, as they included Bluegrass-esque and almost-East European influences but hey – the St Kildans would not have lasted as long as they did if they hadn’t absorbed new influences and adapted their own lifestyles.

However, given the wealth of songs and poetry left us by the St Kildans, opportunities were perhaps missed not to show us more of the true genius and beauty of their literature

On the whole, the concert missed a golden opportunity to provide a stunning cameo of St Kilda life and leaving. It was a shame that having gone to the trouble of bringing in musicians of calibre such as Bruce Macgregor and Anna Murray, that more use of their talents was not made.

It was also a shame that there was no element of multimedia in the evening, particularly for those who know little of the landscape of the island and its relevance to the literature they left us – even a simple and relatively inexpensive backdrop of a slide or two of the island would have helped lift the whole evening to that which the audience were largely expecting. Indeed, I ended up sitting next to a disgruntled couple who were wrongly sold tickets by Eden Court, thinking that they were going to see a night of St Kilda films……

© Fiona MacKenzie, 2009

Links

• St Kilda Day
• Fiona MacKenzie