Showing @ Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh 10-19 March @ 19:00
With English as the world’s internationally recognised leading language for education, business and tourism, it’s easy to forget that even within our own shores some of us have grown up speaking another language: Gaelic.
Although an officially recognised language of Scotland, the number of Gaelic speakers is shrinking every year, with the 2001 Census revealing that only 1.2% of the population now speak it. To encourage the survival of this dwindling language, the National Theatre of Scotland is launching a new development programme for Gaelic artists and work as part of the Reveal season in partnership with Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre.
Am I sad that my language is dying?
Yes I am.
I feel the edges of the light move in and wonder if one day there will only be me, or someone like me, carrying words for the world which no-one else knows.
As one of the first production of its kind comes the premiere of Somersaults, a new play by Gaelic playwright Iain Finlay Macleod. In an exploration of the identity, belonging and sense of self that come with language, Cambridge graduate James (Tony Kearney) has everything: a beautiful wife, a London flat, and wealth. But as financial and marital problems descend, he suddenly finds he’s left with nothing – except words, and even they are beginning to disappear. James’ father Sandy (Angus Peter Campbell) is dying, along with James’ last connection to his childhood, his upbringing and the language of his birth, Gaelic.
Presented as a platform performance, this smaller scale production rehearsed over only two weeks allows the audience to become involved in this evolving play and discover how it can develop further. With the National Theatre of Scotland looking to appoint its first Gaelic Associate Artist, Somersaults marks the start of an important and exciting new direction in the landscape of both theatre and the continuation of the language itself.