EIF 2024 The Outrun Church Hill Theatre 3rd August Review
“The Outrun” at Church Hill Theatre tonight was the world premiere of the stage adaptation of Amy Liptrot’s bestselling memoir/book (2016) and is a co-production between Edinburgh International Festival and Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh.
Orkney is here every bit as much a major player in this story as any of the central characters, and the rugged landscape and the seas around it, that elemental closeness to the powers of nature, and its isolation come to mean very different things to a young woman (Isis Hainsworth) at very different times in her life.
Adapting any book to a stage is always going to be a challenge and “The Outrun” presents more than a few of these, particularly as the original narrative covers an alcohol and drug abuse time-frame of over a decade with the physical setting shifting between Orkney and London (with a short time in Edinburgh in there too). With skill, Vicky Featherstone (director) and Stef Smith (writer & adapter) have overcome these problems with production that is always moving forward, but you do have to listen closely to the words here as missing even one line of this story can mean missing a vital clue as to where and when we are in this woman’s life.
Giving this story the physical reality that it needs to work in, a combination of set, video, light and sound design skilfully give us, the audience, just enough visual information for our own imaginations to fill in the rest of what is required for any scene. Composer Luke Sutherland also adds much to this production.
“The Outrun” is not a one woman performance, but it does focus on one woman, and Isis Hainsworth as the central character here is never away from the stage and has the vast bulk of the spoken dialogue as she tells us all her story. This is, by any of the markers that you can use to measure a performance, an impressive one from Isis Hainsworth, and her transition from a young woman setting off from the only life that she has ever known on Orkney, first to go to university in Edinburgh and later to London, deserves to be at least nominated for some major awards.
Through Isis, we follow this young woman who wants to experience everything, but ultimately is unable to cope with the speed at which she is consuming every new experience offered to her and soon begins to lose herself in a spiral of addiction and self-destruction that she seems unable to stop or even find any way out of.
Eventually, the very elemental nature of her home on Orkney provides the reasons to continue to stay alcohol- and drug-free, but as anyone who has reached this stage of recovery from either or both of these problems knows, there is no magical cure here. Instead, total abstinence from the very things that your body and mind still crave is the only solution and that is an ongoing day by day challenge. Here a tight script and a sensitive when needed performance from Isis Hainsworth clearly show the problems of adapting from a life that is fuelled by substance abuse and how good that felt at the time to one of total sobriety. Here, finding oneself alone without any extra help is the big challenge.
By its very nature, this production has to focus on one central character, but the relationship between this woman and her parents is also a crucial part of this narrative and although there is little time left to explore this in detail and we never meet the mother in this adaptation, Paul Brennan as Dad is very good here as someone who, unlike his daughter, does not want to tell his story. He is a man of few words, a man who loves his daughter so much that you keep hoping that he might actually find the words to tell her so.
We do get to meet a few of the people in our woman’s story, and Seamus Dillane (Boy), Alison Fitzjohn (Person), Reuben Joseph (Scientist), and Ros Watt (Friend) are carefully enough written to be able to tell you their stories without detracting from the main narrative.
The Outrun is on until 24 August, so there are plenty of opportunities to see what I am sure will turn out to be one of this year’s Edinburgh International Festival theatre highlights.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
Orkney is here every bit as much a major player in this story as any of the central characters, and the rugged landscape and the seas around it, that elemental closeness to the powers of nature, and its isolation come to mean very different things to a young woman (Isis Hainsworth) at very different times in her life.
Adapting any book to a stage is always going to be a challenge and “The Outrun” presents more than a few of these, particularly as the original narrative covers an alcohol and drug abuse time-frame of over a decade with the physical setting shifting between Orkney and London (with a short time in Edinburgh in there too). With skill, Vicky Featherstone (director) and Stef Smith (writer & adapter) have overcome these problems with production that is always moving forward, but you do have to listen closely to the words here as missing even one line of this story can mean missing a vital clue as to where and when we are in this woman’s life.
Giving this story the physical reality that it needs to work in, a combination of set, video, light and sound design skilfully give us, the audience, just enough visual information for our own imaginations to fill in the rest of what is required for any scene. Composer Luke Sutherland also adds much to this production.
“The Outrun” is not a one woman performance, but it does focus on one woman, and Isis Hainsworth as the central character here is never away from the stage and has the vast bulk of the spoken dialogue as she tells us all her story. This is, by any of the markers that you can use to measure a performance, an impressive one from Isis Hainsworth, and her transition from a young woman setting off from the only life that she has ever known on Orkney, first to go to university in Edinburgh and later to London, deserves to be at least nominated for some major awards.
Through Isis, we follow this young woman who wants to experience everything, but ultimately is unable to cope with the speed at which she is consuming every new experience offered to her and soon begins to lose herself in a spiral of addiction and self-destruction that she seems unable to stop or even find any way out of.
Eventually, the very elemental nature of her home on Orkney provides the reasons to continue to stay alcohol- and drug-free, but as anyone who has reached this stage of recovery from either or both of these problems knows, there is no magical cure here. Instead, total abstinence from the very things that your body and mind still crave is the only solution and that is an ongoing day by day challenge. Here a tight script and a sensitive when needed performance from Isis Hainsworth clearly show the problems of adapting from a life that is fuelled by substance abuse and how good that felt at the time to one of total sobriety. Here, finding oneself alone without any extra help is the big challenge.
By its very nature, this production has to focus on one central character, but the relationship between this woman and her parents is also a crucial part of this narrative and although there is little time left to explore this in detail and we never meet the mother in this adaptation, Paul Brennan as Dad is very good here as someone who, unlike his daughter, does not want to tell his story. He is a man of few words, a man who loves his daughter so much that you keep hoping that he might actually find the words to tell her so.
We do get to meet a few of the people in our woman’s story, and Seamus Dillane (Boy), Alison Fitzjohn (Person), Reuben Joseph (Scientist), and Ros Watt (Friend) are carefully enough written to be able to tell you their stories without detracting from the main narrative.
The Outrun is on until 24 August, so there are plenty of opportunities to see what I am sure will turn out to be one of this year’s Edinburgh International Festival theatre highlights.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
Please note that unless requested by performers/pr/venues that this website no longer uses the "star rating" system on reviews.