Sing a Song of the Sea -’Islander’, the Scottish musical that speaks to our desperation for connection
When Finn Anderson, Amy Draper, and Stewart Melton first began work on the musical Islander, they knew that it was going to be non-traditional. With a cast consisting of only two performers, no sets, no scenery, and no orchestra, it was designed to be a production that could exist anywhere, and belong to anyone.
Islander is essentially the musicalization of yearning. It embodies that feeling in the pit of your stomach when you long to do something, anything, but don’t know where to turn. The piece follows Eilidh, a teenage girl, who is torn between the magic of childhood and the harsh realities of life. The island she calls home, Kinnen, is an isolated and close-knit community facing extinction as generations move to mainland Scotland. The village is forced to reckon with abandoning Kinnen altogether as Eilidh wanders the rocky coastline until she stumbles upon a dying whale calf and a mysterious girl who appeared from thin air.
For those familiar with Scottish folklore, such an appearance is ominous, but for those who are not, a different story emerges above the fantasy. The story of a girl, isolated from the outside world, who desperately wants to connect. With her mother working on the Mainland, she lives with her grandmother, waiting for the occasional crackling video call from her mother as she plods through her distance learning courses.
Sound familiar to anyone?
Islander first premiered in 2018 with a Scottish tour of town halls and community centers, before arriving at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2019, where it won the award for Best Musical after selling out its entire run on the first day of the Festival. From there it moved to Southwark Playhouse in London, where it was immensely well-received, and the idea of bringing the show to venues outside of the UK was under consideration before the COVID-19 pandemic skidded everything to a halt.
For many musicals, this would have been the end of the line. Instead, life followed art as the creative team came together over sputtering zoom and phone calls to salvage the show. Unlike many shows on the West End, they were in the position to pivot - with no set or visual spectacle to speak of, their show could transfer to a digital format much easier than something as grand as Mary Poppins, which had just returned to the British boards. Preliminary recordings for a cast album had been made in January 2020, right before the shutdown, and the team took advantage of their small size that fit under group guidelines to swiftly mix and engineer the album in time for a release on September 25th, 2020, when they had originally planned to take on a national tour.
The music of Islander is incredibly unique. A mixture of Scottish folk music, traditional acapella, and modern live looping, the entire score is created by Kirsty Findlay and Bethany Tennick in the moment, with various loop pedals at their disposal to layer their voices to create waves of sound. A modern manifestation of bardic storytelling, they are able to envelop you into the world of Kinnen; so great is the effect that if you close your eyes, you could swear you could smell sea salt in the air.
In a world where theatre is forced to explore new avenues of storytelling, Islander made the decision to bring tradition back to the table. In collaboration with the BBC a radio play adaptation of the piece was presented in late January 2021, which remains free to the public until February 22nd, 2021 at https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000rcc3. The cast album is available on all streaming platforms, and plans are in motion for Islander to set sail to new lands.
As we enter the eleventh month of pandemic isolation, Islander’s story of connection and community may be just the salve you need to weather the storm.