from ForArgyll.com

“Last Friday one of the most ambitious projects conceived for Homecoming Scotland opened for a week long run at Dunollie House, Oban. In partnership with the Dunollie House Trust, the Walking Theatre Company has created a full length theatre piece set in two circular walks around the grounds of Dunollie House and Castle.

“The setting is, as anyone who knows the site, truly spectacular. The house, the grounds and the castle provide a wonderful, historic backdrop to the drama. Actually, that is inaccurate, the venue becomes part of the theatre piece, interacting with, informing and shaping the narrative so ably and engagingly realised by the players. Of course this is the Walking Theatre Company’s metier, taking an environment and bringing it sparklingly to life, utilising the folds and creases of the landscape to tell its story or stories.

“The Hidden Jewel itself, written by Sadie Dixon-Spain, is divided in half into two walks, and these create separate but intertwined narratives, either of which can be experienced before the other.

“The scene is set when the Lady Julianne McDougall (played by Sadie Dixon-Spain), aunt to John “the Red” Comyn, welcomed us as members of the Clan MacDougall, mustering to repel the King of England, Edward “Longshanks”. The cry, “Shall we be ruled by the English?” and the reply, “Nay!” visibly shifted everyone in the audience from recipients of the drama into participants, and set the tone for the entire evening. This is clever stuff, and engages the audience immediately, and asks us to recognise that the story we are being told, has echoes and relevances now. This is not to say the piece is polemical, it is just with tales of Campbells betraying MacDougalls on behalf of the English, of heirs murdering competitors to the throne and families being torn asunder by battle and war there are too many similarities to the current political situation for it not to inform the drama. More powerfully though, because we are part of this piece, being asked to declaim oaths of allegiance, read letters for short-sighted generals and swear that we are Campbells rather than MacDougalls, we become part of, sympathise with and implicated in the Scots side of things.

“When John the Lame (Liam Calgie) arrives, his screeching, bawdy household in tow, this overarching political theme is set alongside nicely paced domestic, comedic by-plays led by Miss Gray (Rebecca Bloom). In response to news of Bruce’s defeat at Methven John divides the participants into ‘Ravens’ and ‘Lions’, drills them in the art of cleaving and dunching while declaiming the MacDougall family motto “Conquer or Die”. John’s admonishments were greeted with great good will by the audience, all playing hardened warriors with huge gusto. Declared ‘hardy chiels’, the chief sends his new regiments on their way, ostensibly to war, but in fact each is guided to their own half of the story: one to that of the Hidden Jewel, the other to that of the MacDougall family.

“The frission and excitement of being involved in these dramas is cannily sustained by a theatre company used to the changeability of the environment – at one point we have a uprooted tree transformed into a rocky beach, at another a hillocky woodland becomes a trysting point for lovers, then we become a column of MacDougall warriors marching as the Clan Campbell, and at another the funeral cortege for a Victorian melodrama, with its very own, comically inappropriate professional mourner (Katie Baker). The bent and twisted oaks of ancient woodland become the scene for a stirring tale of the rout of the Campbells at the pass Brander, told by Andrew Grey, and the rolling meadow the setting for the discovery of the stone which was to adorn the brooch. There’s a lovely moment here, contrasting Catholicism with paganism when Simon Linnell’s bewildered, tattered priest is confronted with Ruth Tap’s percipient, mystical Brenna. These two actors manage to plumb truth from charm, and begin the brooch’s story with suitable echoes of the sons of Somerled, Avalon and the Crusades – a heady brew indeed!

“The combination of The Walking Theatre Company’s practiced, professional excellence, and the youthful ebullience of actors brought in from around Oban works well giving characters like the stentorian and masterful Commander (Ian Armstrong) a perfect foil in the form of a pair of comic flibberty-jibberts (Katie Fleck and Claire Gillies) or John Robinson’s bravura Sir Walter Scott being heckled and chided by a not-so-sweet, but wonderfully realised school marm, Miss Kinnard. The timing between school mistress (Sadie Dixon-Spain) and 21-year-old actor for this scene was a delight, as was the way they chivvied, chided and engaged with the audience, making us all laugh with their characters.

“The most memorable scene though, was set by Dunollie Castle itself, with views across Kerrera to Mull and Lismore. In the falling light of a glorious evening, Liam Calgie’s portrayal of Alexander MacDougall, Chief of the MacDougall Clan debating the domestic and the martial at the time of the ‘45 with his wife, was touching, comic and faintly, deliciously camp. The audience lapped this up, delighting both in the performances and the vistas, with several remaining to take photos before the descent back to the house and the play’s denouement.

“In the late evening during the final scenes, when the Lions and Ravens are reunited for the final time and with Dunollie House lit with images from the play, and torches flickering light across the faces of audience and actors alike, it is no wonder you feel that you have been immersed in a place out of time, sensing how it must have been for the folk caught up in these stories. The final telling flourish comes in the form of a wonderful reading by Nicole O’Brien of a letter written by Coleen MacDougall, the Maid of Lorne, who presented the brooch to the Victorian court. By drawing us into the source material we are reminded that throughout we have been witnessing a drama based on the lives and events of one of the great clans.

“When Sadie Dixon-Spain thanks us for being a wonderful audience and a better cast we are delighted to have been part of it, feeling, however fleetingly, the cameraderie of a company and a production who have taken us on an extraordinary theatrical journey, one which anyone with even an ounce of feeling for Scotland, its history and its peoples should take.

As we walked away to the minibus which ferried us back to the Corran Halls, I overheard an extremely gratified American visitor exclaim to their partner that it had been ” … unforgettable!” and asked one of the stewards whether he thought they’d be doing it again next year? Let’s hope so!

“Tickets can be bought online at Dunollie.org, or from the box office in Oban at the Hope MacDougall Collection.

“Performances start at 8pm every night until and including Thursday 23rd July, and finish at around 10.30pm. A minibus is provided from the Corran Halls carpark from 7pm. Corran Hall carpark is free from 6pm. No cars are allowed at Dunollie itself.”