Showing @ National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh until Sun 16 Mar @ times vary
Lung Ha’s Theatre Company has a fine reputation for producing innovative drama that captures the imagination. Maria Oller’s production of The Hold is no different. From the opening – a woman loses her child in the museum – to the finale, this is a fascinating exploration of the psychology of forgetting and remembering, and the special hold that objects and their extraordinary meanings can assert; the things we love and the things we lose.
Peter (John Edgar) is an old man obsessed by objects from his past. Initially his helper Sally (Teri Robb) sees his stuff as only fit for the crusher. But Peter has lost his son and his wife (a source of utter regret) and every object has a special meaning. Can Professor Stone (Stephen Tait) the head of the museum and expert on “thing theory” see the value of Peter’s treasures?
This is a site-specific piece and the National Museum of Scotland is as much a star of the show as any of the actors. What better a setting for this promenade performance about a reformed hoarder, than an institution which has to be rigorous about storage and display? The acoustics perfectly complement the story’s shadowy remembrance of things past and the music takes on a real resonance, though the performers sometimes struggle with the echoes.
What might have been mawkish is, in fact, hauntingly moving and surprisingly funny – a special mention goes to Edgar and Robb whose wonderful double-act is worthy of its own sitcom. Atmospheric lighting from Jeanine Davies and an excellent score from the award-winning Kenneth Dempster help create a special magic. Writer Adrian Osmond provides a demanding script for Lung Ha’s Theatre Company, an organisation for people with learning disabilities. The final sequence set amid Eduardo Paolozzi‘s powerful, fractured sculptures in the bronze-age basement is haunting and honest and will linger in the memory.