Calum’s Road

The National Theatre of Scotland and Communicado Theatre Company brought sheer magic to Lamlash in its production of Calum’s Road earlier this month. The subject seemed at first an unpromising one – how could a dramatic story be made from an obstinate man who, despairing of the local Council, built two miles of road in the small island of Raasay? The question was brilliantly answered by David Harrower’s extraordinarily inventive script, devised from the original book by Roger Hutchinson. Just six actors spanned the generations that saw a child grow up and a man live and labour and die, and their skill in shifting from role to role and decade to decade was consummate. They showed the heartbreak as a community drifted away when the lack of a road cast them into isolation, and evoked the tenacious, sometimes crazy vision of Calum, who with his wife and young daughter kept faith in what seemed an impossible idea.  The building of the road became an almost tangible reality as blocks, though in reality of light plywood, were handled with sweating effort. The choreography of this constant, detailed movement was beautifully handled, and the cast had a quality of sheer physicality that made the story ring true.

Ian Macrae in the title role had an expressive economy that could make tension out of stillness and used silence to convey every flicker of the dedication and grim humour of Calum. He is a quite extraordinary actor, able to become whatever is needed, through the simplest of changed movement or the use of a tiny prop. The same skill was true of each one in this small group. Angela Hardie as Julia had utter lightness and freedom, though able to link beautifully with Ceit Kearney as the child was seen from later perspective as a woman. Scott Fletcher was equally adroit as his two parts as Alex and Young Iain, who matured into the wise, wry Old Iain in the skilled hands of Finlay Welsh.

Alasdair Macrae, actor and musical director, provided a persuasive emotional setting for the action with his presence on stage as fiddler player and drummer as well as varying characters, and above all, perhaps, praise must go to the stage managing and technical presentation. A video backdrop projected the road and the island, and at one point saw Calum driving the evocation of a car up the ramp onto a CalMac ferry. It provided snow and gale, and the wonderfully managed sound and light took the packed audience far beyond the Community Theatre in Lamlash and out to an island where bad weather could threaten death. The whole experience was extraordinary, and we can only hope that the National Theatre will put Arran on their tour list again.