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"...a gloriously silly romp of an evening...a near-perfect example of post-modernism in all its playful glory...the play has infinite cheek and joie de vivre, a sharp eye for the more absurd aspects of conventional theatre, and a poignant sense of the music, shared history and true love that can bind together dreams and realities, fiction and fact, stage and audience. Matthew Zajac's production benefits from a terrific central performance from Sarah Haworth as Kirsty; and its full of a sense that the culture of Scotland's wacky green edges is bursting with youthful energy."
Joyce McMillan, The Scotsman
Directed by Matthew Zajac
Iona – Vivien Grahame
Neil – Douglas Russell
Kirsty – Sarah Haworth
Sabina – Irene Allan
Janice/Mrs. Henderson – Mairi Morrison
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Designed by David Ramsay
Costumes by Kirsteen Naismith
Lighting by Cara Wiseman
Music and sound by Andy Thorburn
Production Manager David Ramsay
DSM Cara Wiseman
Graphic Design Karen Sutherland
Publicity Photography Laurence Winram
Production Photography Trevor Martin
Administrator Lara McDonald
Produced by Hamish MacDonald & Matthew Zajac
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Iona – We buy a lot of things online. Its exciting. It doesn’t seem like you’re spending money at all. Then a few days later the thing you’ve bought comes through the door, like a present.
Kirsty – A present from who ?
Iona – I don’t know. I’ve never thought about it. It just comes through the door. A present from God.
Kirsty – (holding up the pepper grinder) A present from God – and you chose this ?
Neil and Iona are a comfortable couple in their early thirties. They both have well-paid professional jobs in the new Highland metropolis; they dress both themselves and their home immaculately. Their lives are ordered to the point of sterility. They are smug, self-centred and bored with each other. Into their lives bursts Kirsty, Iona’s anarchic sister, who immediately disturbs their equilibrium. Iona is delighted by her arrival, Neil feels threatened by it. Kirsty challenges their status quo at every turn in fundamental and petty ways. Half an hour into the play, its established reality, a contemporary living room farce, is transformed by Kirsty’s realisation that they are being watched by the audience ! What follows is an increasingly frenzied and absurd deconstruction of the medium of theatre itself, with ‘real’ characters appearing from the audience, ‘stage’ characters believing they are seeing ghosts, and open discussion of the play’s strengths and weaknesses with it all ending in a collective karaoke singalong to the popular Scots ballad “Wild Mountain Thyme” !
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"Expect the unexpected and you'll have a ball...Dogstar Theatre Company, with pzazz and not a little risk-taking, presents this gem with all the sparkle it deserves." Margaret Chrystall, Highland News
Ali Smith and Matthew Zajac were brought up across the road from each other in Dalneigh, a 1950s council estate by the Caledonian Canal in Inverness. Ali went on to become one of the UK’s leading novelists, twice nominated for the Booker and Orange Prizes, winner of the Whitbread Novel Prize, the Saltire Book of the Year Award and numerous other accolades. Matthew made a successful career for himself as an actor and producer in England before returning to Scotland in 2000. They kept loosely in touch over the years and in 2000, they applied for a playwright’s commission from the Scottish Arts Council through the now-defunct Highland Festival. The application was successful and The Seer was born. After an unsuccessful attempt to raise production money, the play sat on a shelf for several years. Meanwhile, Dogstar was developing. Matthew and Hamish decided to try once more to produce the play. This time, they were successful with the Scottish Arts Council. Promoters were very keen to have the show and a seven-week tour which took in virtually every region of Scotland was booked.
The play brought the house down in a rehearsed reading a year earlier, performed by a top-quality cast at Hootananny in Inverness. This cast comprised Gabriel Quigley, Douglas Russell, Louise Allen, Michelle Rodley and Mairi Morrison. The success of the reading proved to be a reliable test of the play as it received plaudits from many quarters during its tour.
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The Seer opened at the Spectrum Centre, Inverness and toured to the following venues:
Inverness - Spectrum Centre
Strathpeffer - Strathpeffer Pavilion
Isle of Skye - Sabhal Mòr Ostaig
Gorthleck - Stratherrick Hall
Lochinver Village Hall
Lyth Arts Centre
Rosehall Village Hall
Glenmoriston Millennium Hall
Plockton Village Hall
Ullapool - MacPhail Theatre
Isle of Lewis, Stornoway - An Lanntair
Benbecula - St Mary’s Hall
Barra - Castlebay Community School
Paisley Arts Centre
Aberdeen - The Lemon Tree
Aboyne - Deeside Theatre
Stirling - MacRobert
St John’s Town of Dalry - High School
Shetland - Garrison Theatre
St Andrews - Byre Theatre
Dunfermline - Carnegie Hall
Arbuthnott - The Grassic Gibbon Centre
Newtonhill by Stonehaven - Bettridge Centre
Isle of Mull - Dervaig Village Hall
Kilmelford & Kilninver Village Hall
Kingussie - The Badenoch Centre
Edinburgh - Traverse Theatre
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The production was supported by the Scottish Arts Council with additional support from the Highlands & Islands Enterprise Touring Fund.