Elegies Scottish Storytelling Centre Edinburgh 27th April 2024 Review
Elegies, a homage to Hamish Henderson at the Scottish Storytelling Centre Edinburgh tonight, was a one hour performance that featured spoken word, dance and music in one production.
I have to admit now, at the start of this review, that despite Hamish Henderson’s extraordinary life, his achievements as a poet, champion of folk music and Scottish cultural arts, his socialist views and his life-long opposition to military conflict (unless all other options have been exhausted), I am far less familiar with his work than I should perhaps be.
This work which uses as its source material Elegies for the Dead in Cyrenaica (1948) by Hamish Henderson is, however, taken from the very personal perspective of his own thoughts and reflections during his time as a serving soldier in WWII and his time spent in the North African desert military campaign. This work I can relate to as my own father had told more than a few stories of his war in the North African desert too (usually after a little too much to drink as this was the only time he ever spoke about his war).
There is no doubting the power of the words of Hamish Henderson, and spoken word artists Morag Anderson, Stephen Watt and Jim Mackintosh did a fine job of bringing those words to life tonight, particularly as they are now so relevant in a sadly still war-torn world (do we never learn anything as human beings?). For myself I would have happily listened to just the spoken word all night, and the ability of Hamish Henderson to feel empathy for soldiers on all sides of this conflict is ultimately a lasting tribute to his own personal pacifist beliefs.
Here so many words are left for us to question, and the irony of a mother’s pride at seeing her son in military uniform ready to fight for his country is balanced by the sorrow of finding out that war has now claimed another victim. Is that very pride though sending sons off to their deaths in some foreign land?
Whichever side you were on did not really matter in the end as the one common foe was the desert itself. Whether the blistering heat of the day or the coldness of the nights, the sun above and the sands below cared nothing for whatever side you were fighting on, you either survived its raw elemental power or died, and were possibly lost forever within its embrace or left as food for nature’s hunter scavengers.
Translating these words, these experiences into movement were dancers Helen Gould, Nicola Thomson, Edwin Wen and Aimee Williamson with choreography by George Adams that paid tribute to many of the popular dance styles of the day – ceilidh, swing, jive, cha-cha-cha and lindy hop. An ever present deck of cards at a table gave an insight into how many possibly passed quiet moments in the desert.
Original music was by multi-instrumentalist songwriter Cera Impala and there is no doubting her own ability with words as her song “Sweet Sue” clearly demonstrated. For some reason though, Cera Impala seemed a little apprehensive at times on stage and some sort of obvious vocal issue was causing a bit of a problem tonight, but as they say, ”The show must go on”. There were moments though when Cera’s husky vocals added to the atmosphere of the song and the overall work with what was overall a sensitive and emotional response to the main subject matter of this production.
Spoken word, dance and music were all weaving their own individual strands tonight, and that for me was the real problem; those strands all too often were not interweaving to create a new tapestry of something that was more than the sum of its parts and too many opportunities to do so were simply, for me, missed.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
I have to admit now, at the start of this review, that despite Hamish Henderson’s extraordinary life, his achievements as a poet, champion of folk music and Scottish cultural arts, his socialist views and his life-long opposition to military conflict (unless all other options have been exhausted), I am far less familiar with his work than I should perhaps be.
This work which uses as its source material Elegies for the Dead in Cyrenaica (1948) by Hamish Henderson is, however, taken from the very personal perspective of his own thoughts and reflections during his time as a serving soldier in WWII and his time spent in the North African desert military campaign. This work I can relate to as my own father had told more than a few stories of his war in the North African desert too (usually after a little too much to drink as this was the only time he ever spoke about his war).
There is no doubting the power of the words of Hamish Henderson, and spoken word artists Morag Anderson, Stephen Watt and Jim Mackintosh did a fine job of bringing those words to life tonight, particularly as they are now so relevant in a sadly still war-torn world (do we never learn anything as human beings?). For myself I would have happily listened to just the spoken word all night, and the ability of Hamish Henderson to feel empathy for soldiers on all sides of this conflict is ultimately a lasting tribute to his own personal pacifist beliefs.
Here so many words are left for us to question, and the irony of a mother’s pride at seeing her son in military uniform ready to fight for his country is balanced by the sorrow of finding out that war has now claimed another victim. Is that very pride though sending sons off to their deaths in some foreign land?
Whichever side you were on did not really matter in the end as the one common foe was the desert itself. Whether the blistering heat of the day or the coldness of the nights, the sun above and the sands below cared nothing for whatever side you were fighting on, you either survived its raw elemental power or died, and were possibly lost forever within its embrace or left as food for nature’s hunter scavengers.
Translating these words, these experiences into movement were dancers Helen Gould, Nicola Thomson, Edwin Wen and Aimee Williamson with choreography by George Adams that paid tribute to many of the popular dance styles of the day – ceilidh, swing, jive, cha-cha-cha and lindy hop. An ever present deck of cards at a table gave an insight into how many possibly passed quiet moments in the desert.
Original music was by multi-instrumentalist songwriter Cera Impala and there is no doubting her own ability with words as her song “Sweet Sue” clearly demonstrated. For some reason though, Cera Impala seemed a little apprehensive at times on stage and some sort of obvious vocal issue was causing a bit of a problem tonight, but as they say, ”The show must go on”. There were moments though when Cera’s husky vocals added to the atmosphere of the song and the overall work with what was overall a sensitive and emotional response to the main subject matter of this production.
Spoken word, dance and music were all weaving their own individual strands tonight, and that for me was the real problem; those strands all too often were not interweaving to create a new tapestry of something that was more than the sum of its parts and too many opportunities to do so were simply, for me, missed.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
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