ARCTIC WINDS PART 1
At the tail end of the pandemic, Dogstar made its first productions for over 2 years. With some restrictions still in place, live theatre was still to get back on its feet. We rehearsed, produced and filmed these two new plays, hoping to present performances before live audiences at a later date.
NIGHTLANDS was presented for two weeks at Summerhall in August 2022, part of that year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The show was selling out by the end of its run and it won a Summerhall Lustrum Award for outstanding theatre.
THE FALLEN ANGELS OF THE MOINE awaits its live debut.
NIGHTLANDS
by Jack MacGregor
with Rebecca Wilkie & Matthew Zajac
THE FALLEN ANGELS OF THE MOINE
by George Gunn, directed by Matthew Zajac
with Rebecca Wilkie, Matthew Zajac & Tara McGirr
Set & Costume Design Ali Maclaurin
Music & Sound Brian McAlpine & Jonny Hardie
Lighting Grant Anderson
Film Director Brian Ross
Production Manager Nils den Hertog
Stage Manager Chariya Glasse-Davis
Assistant Director Keira Smith
Creative Learning Officer Laura Walker
Creative Learning Workshop Assistant Vicky Macrae
Camera Operator Jason Sinclair
Production Photographer Paul Campbell
Produced by Donna Macrae & Matthew Zajac
The Plays
NIGHTLANDS
“Funny how you can get so convinced of your own greatness, that you think it’s going to last forever. Then all that’s left of you is memory, then ruins, then nothing.”
Nightlands is a dislocated environmental thriller which takes place in the extraordinary ex-Soviet ghost town of Pyramiden on the Svalbard Archipelago during a ferocious Arctic winter. Set in 1999 in the twilight of a decade of capitalist chaos in Russia and the dawn of the Putin autocracy, the ghost town's caretakers, an old man and a young woman, play out a generational conflict. Slava and Sasha are antagonistic representatives of opposing world views, he nostalgic for the collapsed communist past, she embracing the possibilities of the new world order. But as the Polar Night and its storms close in on them, they are forced to acknowledge both their need for and their rejection of each other. Set in an environment of mighty natural forces, Nightlands is a powerful metaphor for how authoritarians weaponise nostalgia.
At the tail end of the pandemic, Dogstar made its first productions for over 2 years. With some restrictions still in place, live theatre was still to get back on its feet. We rehearsed, produced and filmed these two new plays, hoping to present performances before live audiences at a later date.
NIGHTLANDS was presented for two weeks at Summerhall in August 2022, part of that year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The show was selling out by the end of its run and it won a Summerhall Lustrum Award for outstanding theatre.
THE FALLEN ANGELS OF THE MOINE awaits its live debut.
NIGHTLANDS
by Jack MacGregor
with Rebecca Wilkie & Matthew Zajac
THE FALLEN ANGELS OF THE MOINE
by George Gunn, directed by Matthew Zajac
with Rebecca Wilkie, Matthew Zajac & Tara McGirr
Set & Costume Design Ali Maclaurin
Music & Sound Brian McAlpine & Jonny Hardie
Lighting Grant Anderson
Film Director Brian Ross
Production Manager Nils den Hertog
Stage Manager Chariya Glasse-Davis
Assistant Director Keira Smith
Creative Learning Officer Laura Walker
Creative Learning Workshop Assistant Vicky Macrae
Camera Operator Jason Sinclair
Production Photographer Paul Campbell
Produced by Donna Macrae & Matthew Zajac
The Plays
NIGHTLANDS
“Funny how you can get so convinced of your own greatness, that you think it’s going to last forever. Then all that’s left of you is memory, then ruins, then nothing.”
Nightlands is a dislocated environmental thriller which takes place in the extraordinary ex-Soviet ghost town of Pyramiden on the Svalbard Archipelago during a ferocious Arctic winter. Set in 1999 in the twilight of a decade of capitalist chaos in Russia and the dawn of the Putin autocracy, the ghost town's caretakers, an old man and a young woman, play out a generational conflict. Slava and Sasha are antagonistic representatives of opposing world views, he nostalgic for the collapsed communist past, she embracing the possibilities of the new world order. But as the Polar Night and its storms close in on them, they are forced to acknowledge both their need for and their rejection of each other. Set in an environment of mighty natural forces, Nightlands is a powerful metaphor for how authoritarians weaponise nostalgia.
THE FALLEN ANGELS OF THE MOINE
“You are entering an age of loneliness, when no bird will be heard singing, nor a bee humming glad between flowers. Will you be able to live with the silence – the silence of extinction?”
In the devastatingly beautiful and delicate bog of the Moine on Scotland’s North Coast, a scientist, a crofter and a councillor, Cianna, Cait and Robbie, are confronted by military-industrial companies wanting to build a rocket launching site not far from the nuclear dump. Cianna monitors the land’s health and the results are worrying. Cait has apocalyptic visions, and Robbie is possessed by the voices of those who control him. All the while, the Angels watch them. Rich in poetry, myth and legend, The Fallen Angels of the Moine, is a tragicomedy about ordinary people grappling with the epic changes shaking our world as governments and business increasingly compete with nature & the implications this brings for human survival.
“You are entering an age of loneliness, when no bird will be heard singing, nor a bee humming glad between flowers. Will you be able to live with the silence – the silence of extinction?”
In the devastatingly beautiful and delicate bog of the Moine on Scotland’s North Coast, a scientist, a crofter and a councillor, Cianna, Cait and Robbie, are confronted by military-industrial companies wanting to build a rocket launching site not far from the nuclear dump. Cianna monitors the land’s health and the results are worrying. Cait has apocalyptic visions, and Robbie is possessed by the voices of those who control him. All the while, the Angels watch them. Rich in poetry, myth and legend, The Fallen Angels of the Moine, is a tragicomedy about ordinary people grappling with the epic changes shaking our world as governments and business increasingly compete with nature & the implications this brings for human survival.
| arctic_windsprogramme.pdf |
ARCTIC WINDS CREATIVE LEARNING PROGRAMME
We have been working in secondary schools in Highland & Moray while our partners in Sweden, Profilteatern, have been doing the same in Umeå, Sweden. Swedish students have created their own set designs for NIGHTLANDS and Scottish students have explored devising through research and multi-role performing through a series of workshops led by Creative Learning Officer Laura Walker and Workshop Leaders Vicky Macrae and Sophie Wink. We have produced a Learning Resource Pack to assist teachers and students with further work on the themes, content and production aspects of the plays. It's an excellent resource for anyone, so you are invited to download the pack here:
We have been working in secondary schools in Highland & Moray while our partners in Sweden, Profilteatern, have been doing the same in Umeå, Sweden. Swedish students have created their own set designs for NIGHTLANDS and Scottish students have explored devising through research and multi-role performing through a series of workshops led by Creative Learning Officer Laura Walker and Workshop Leaders Vicky Macrae and Sophie Wink. We have produced a Learning Resource Pack to assist teachers and students with further work on the themes, content and production aspects of the plays. It's an excellent resource for anyone, so you are invited to download the pack here:
| arcticwindslearning_resource_pack__small_.pdf |
