Sweetness by Kevin MacNeil (adapted from the novel by Torgny Lindgren)
"Its a special bond, the bond of brotherhood. A natural phenomenon, like gravity or an eclipse of the sun. Its stronger than love or hate."
The woman had come from a city in the south to lecture in a small village amid the snowbound wastes of the north. She was a writer. After the lecture in the village hall an old man who had been sleeping at the back introduced himself, as she was to be his guest for the night. So it was that she moved in with Archie, a man who lived on his own and was in the last stages of cancer. Not another house in sight save for one just a field away; there lived Archie's brother Murdo, also on his own, and dying of heart disease. Neither brother would consent to die, the woman discovered, for that would give the other the satisfaction of outliving him.
Cut off by a snow blizzard, the woman settles into Archie's attic, leaving only to pick her way across to Murdo's, and in the days that follow she acts as both nurse and confessor to each of them. She learns of the woman they shared and the son of disputed paternity, uncovering the tissue of lies and self-deceptions that keeps the ailing brothers alive in a bond of mutual loathing. Ultimately to her roles of nurse and confessor she adds a third: the hand of Providence...
The woman had come from a city in the south to lecture in a small village amid the snowbound wastes of the north. She was a writer. After the lecture in the village hall an old man who had been sleeping at the back introduced himself, as she was to be his guest for the night. So it was that she moved in with Archie, a man who lived on his own and was in the last stages of cancer. Not another house in sight save for one just a field away; there lived Archie's brother Murdo, also on his own, and dying of heart disease. Neither brother would consent to die, the woman discovered, for that would give the other the satisfaction of outliving him.
Cut off by a snow blizzard, the woman settles into Archie's attic, leaving only to pick her way across to Murdo's, and in the days that follow she acts as both nurse and confessor to each of them. She learns of the woman they shared and the son of disputed paternity, uncovering the tissue of lies and self-deceptions that keeps the ailing brothers alive in a bond of mutual loathing. Ultimately to her roles of nurse and confessor she adds a third: the hand of Providence...
Kate Lynne Verrall
Archie Matthew Zajac
Murdo Sean Hay
Directed By Matthew Zajac & Virginia Radcliffe
Designed By Peggy Jones
Music & Sound Jonny Hardie
Lighting John Gordon
Stage Manager John Gordon
Design Assistant Kelsey Johnston
Set Construction Stuart Nairn At Big House Events
Fat Suit By Peggy Jones
Press & Marketing Liz Smith
Publicity Design Karen Sutherland
Publicity Photography Colin Campbell
Production Photography Leila Angus
Producer Matthew Zajac
General Manager Catherine Macneil
Dogstar took the multi-award-winning The Tailor of Inverness to Umea University and the inaugural Skelleftea Storytelling Festival in Northern Sweden in 2009, after forging links with theatre companies in the region. We were delighted to be developing this new relationship with the work of Torgny Lindgren. Lindgren and Kevin MacNeil are a great fit, a developing writer and an established master from very similar parts of the world, both with great gifts for poetry and dark humour. We transposed Lindgren’s story from Northern Sweden to Northern Scotland. In doing so, the idiom may have changed, but the essential world of Lindgren’s story remained the same. In Sweetness, he provides us with a gift: a beautifully realised, metaphorically powerful comedy of three fascinating characters. It resulted in a memorable piece of small-scale touring theatre with great roles for all three actors, a simple, expansive set and a dramatic musical score.
Archie Matthew Zajac
Murdo Sean Hay
Directed By Matthew Zajac & Virginia Radcliffe
Designed By Peggy Jones
Music & Sound Jonny Hardie
Lighting John Gordon
Stage Manager John Gordon
Design Assistant Kelsey Johnston
Set Construction Stuart Nairn At Big House Events
Fat Suit By Peggy Jones
Press & Marketing Liz Smith
Publicity Design Karen Sutherland
Publicity Photography Colin Campbell
Production Photography Leila Angus
Producer Matthew Zajac
General Manager Catherine Macneil
Dogstar took the multi-award-winning The Tailor of Inverness to Umea University and the inaugural Skelleftea Storytelling Festival in Northern Sweden in 2009, after forging links with theatre companies in the region. We were delighted to be developing this new relationship with the work of Torgny Lindgren. Lindgren and Kevin MacNeil are a great fit, a developing writer and an established master from very similar parts of the world, both with great gifts for poetry and dark humour. We transposed Lindgren’s story from Northern Sweden to Northern Scotland. In doing so, the idiom may have changed, but the essential world of Lindgren’s story remained the same. In Sweetness, he provides us with a gift: a beautifully realised, metaphorically powerful comedy of three fascinating characters. It resulted in a memorable piece of small-scale touring theatre with great roles for all three actors, a simple, expansive set and a dramatic musical score.
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Kevin MacNeil says: “I can’t remember when I last read a book that so desperately and winningly cried out to be adapted for the stage. Torgny Lindgren’s rich and droll and dark and life-enhancing Sweetness/ Hummelhonung is one of the most wittily meaningful novels Northern Europe has produced in recent times.”
2011 Tour February-March
"Jonny Hardie’s excellent atmospheric music…. very moving… a strong and brave piece of work."
Ian Stephen, Northings
“I can’t remember being so knocked out by a book. Its full of wisdom, jokes, poetic language and mind-burning imagery.”
The Scotsman on Kevin MacNeil’s The Stornoway Way
- Premiere
An Lanntair, Stornoway - Sabhal Mor Ostaig, Skye
- Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh
- North Edinburgh Arts Centre
- Gairloch Community Hall
- Macphail Centre, Ullapool
- Mill Theatre, Thurso
- Woodend Barn, Banchory
- Grassic Gibbon Centre, Arbuthnott
- Tower Mill, Hawick
- Raasay Community Hall
- Lochinver Village Hall
- Eden Court Theatre, Inverness
- Lonach Hall, Strathdon
"Jonny Hardie’s excellent atmospheric music…. very moving… a strong and brave piece of work."
Ian Stephen, Northings
“I can’t remember being so knocked out by a book. Its full of wisdom, jokes, poetic language and mind-burning imagery.”
The Scotsman on Kevin MacNeil’s The Stornoway Way
"No doubt about it, Lindgren has joined the ranks of the greatest writers." Michel Crepu, La Croix
Torgny Lindgren is a native of Västerbotten, a remote, sparsely populated region of hills and forests which has many similarities to the north of Scotland. He writes sparse, poetic parables using the people and places of the region. He is widely read in Scandinavia and many of his stories have been adapted for stage and screen in Sweden. Lindgren has achieved international status as a writer by relaying these oral, regional tales into universal investigations into the human condition. His work examines such fundamental and pervasive aspects of life as the nature of power and exploitation and the dimensions and limitations of love and the body. In the last decades of the twentieth century Lindgren emerged as a forceful and prominent writer, becoming in 1991 a member of the prestigious Swedish Academy, which determines the recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Possessing elements of both Franz Kafka and Harold Pinter, Lindgren's style is distinctly suited to depict the ambiguities and absurdities of the present day.
Lindgren was born in 1938 in the Norsjö region of Västerbotten, the son of farmers.
Kevin MacNeil is an acclaimed poet and novelist from Lewis. He has been the recipient of a number of national and international literary honours and awards including the Tivoli European International Poetry Prize (2000). He has held Writing Residencies in the Highlands, Uppsala University, Edinburgh and Bavaria. Publications include The Stornoway Way (Penguin), Love and Zen in the Outer Hebrides and Be Wise, Be Otherwise (both Canongate). His play The Callanish Stoned was produced by Theatre Hebrides in 2006 & 2007. He is currently working on a travelogue-memoir entitled Two Wheels By The Danube, which will centre around his cycle down the Danube in September 2009. This trip has also been filmed for a one-hour documentary for the BBC. Kevin is currently a Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Edinburgh. His latest novel, A Method Actor’s Guide to Jekyll and Hyde has just been published by Polygon and is receiving rave reviews. www.kevinmacneil.com
“…hilarious one moment, heartbreaking the next.”
The List on The Stornoway Way
Lindgren was born in 1938 in the Norsjö region of Västerbotten, the son of farmers.
Kevin MacNeil is an acclaimed poet and novelist from Lewis. He has been the recipient of a number of national and international literary honours and awards including the Tivoli European International Poetry Prize (2000). He has held Writing Residencies in the Highlands, Uppsala University, Edinburgh and Bavaria. Publications include The Stornoway Way (Penguin), Love and Zen in the Outer Hebrides and Be Wise, Be Otherwise (both Canongate). His play The Callanish Stoned was produced by Theatre Hebrides in 2006 & 2007. He is currently working on a travelogue-memoir entitled Two Wheels By The Danube, which will centre around his cycle down the Danube in September 2009. This trip has also been filmed for a one-hour documentary for the BBC. Kevin is currently a Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Edinburgh. His latest novel, A Method Actor’s Guide to Jekyll and Hyde has just been published by Polygon and is receiving rave reviews. www.kevinmacneil.com
“…hilarious one moment, heartbreaking the next.”
The List on The Stornoway Way
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AUDIENCE REACTION
This show is brilliant ! Fantastic ! Joanna Boyce, Edinburgh It was amazing. I have never seen anything like it in my life ! Sineag Blane, Stornoway Another great performance from Dogstar. Mike Robinson, Edinburgh That was a pretty extraordinary piece of theatre indeed. The profound dysfunction on display and the monstrous sibling hatreds had echoes of the northern wastes of Finland and the silent people who inhabit these places. We would like to congratulate you and your fellow cast-members for a memorable evening and wish you all success with the production. Brian Denoon, Inverness I have never heard the good folk of Lochinver giggle so much. As the wonderful dialogue spilled out, we all knew folk in our landscape who could have spoken such things! It is such a pertinent piece to tour the Highlands. Thanks for bringing this piece to us and I wish Dogstar all the best during this difficult funding time. We need Dogstar up here! Clive Sheppard, Promoter, Lochinver Dogstar always brings theatre that is committed, passionate and yes, challenging - isn't that what we need to shake us up? Chris Brotherston, Promoter, Ullapool I got an email in from Seall on Skye glowing about Sweetness & look forward to seeing it on Raasay. Sadie Macleod, Promoter, Raasay We enjoyed Sweetness very much indeed last night. It's a wonderful production and I'm finding the more I reflect on it the more the play grows. One of us is also still queasy... Phil Baarda, Inverness Just wanted to say how much I enjoyed Sweetness the other night at Hawick (if ‘enjoy’ is the right word!). I loved the dark world of the story and the moving relationship between the brothers. Great to discover Lindgren too - intriguing writer! Jules Horne, Hawick I've since had a chance to talk to colleagues about the play, and the verdict seems fairly unanimous. Although we came to the North Edinburgh Arts Centre not knowing what to expect, we all left pleasantly surprised and impressed. Strong performances, atmospheric music and inventive scene changes gave the play a pace and intensity which really helped to highlight the core dichotomy in Lindgren's novel. We wonder if Dogstar has plans to adapt any more of Lingren's novels for the stage? Dr. Alan MacNiven, Lecturer in Scandinavian Studies, Edinburgh Universi One could argue that it is exactly the combination of regional rootedness and universal applicability which is at the heart of the appeal of Lindgren's work. Watching your performance, which I thorougly enjoyed, it seemed to me that even interpretations in terms of international politics are possible: two 'regimes', which are inverted, yet strikingly similar versions of each other, caught up in a 'cold war' battle, only alleviated by the diplomacy of the 'Kate' character, an envoy of sorts... Dr. Bjarne Thomsen Reader in Scandinavian Studies, Edinburgh University It was clever, original, and pretty damn biblical somehow too... Audience Member, Inverness |
