The Village and The Road is an invitation to experience a world of great beauty, but also one that carries the very contemporary imprints of separation, emigration and rootlessness.
‘The great thinning’ was a term coined by environmental journalist Michael McCarthy, to describe the loss of so many of the birds which once delighted visitors to the British countryside. The Village and The Road is a response to another ‘great thinning’: for the first time in human history there are more people living in cities than in the countryside. Many, especially the young, are taking the road out of their villages, often facing hardship and danger as they do so.
The Village and The Road is a portrait of the tensions that exist between the village and the road at this time of crucial change; a time ‘when the village girls have no eyes/for the village boys’.
This evocative piece is a collaboration of words from celebrated writer Tom Pow, combined with music from The Galloway Agreement, a new quartet of well-known traditional musicians: Wendy Stewart (harp, voice), Ruth Morris (nyckelharpa), Gavin Marwick (fiddle) and Stuart Macpherson (double bass). Tom Pow draws on his travels to create the narrative, and The Galloway Agreement respond with their wide experiences of the musical traditions of Europe. Their musical talents and sensitivities enlarge the emotional landscape and add drama and poignancy to the narrative.
This new production explores the dramatic potential of the piece with direction by Mathew Zajac (Dogstar Theatre, Tailor of Inverness) and lighting design by Andrew Wilson.
Tom Pow says, ‘It’s a privilege to be working with such wonderful professionals as the musicians in The Galloway Agreement and with Matthew Zajac, whose theatre work has an international reputation. We’re all looking forward to presenting this reworked The Village and The Road to live audiences.’
The Village & The Road will be performed on Saturday the 28th August at the Theatre Royal Dumfries, Sunday the 29th August at The CatStrand New Galloway, and Sunday the 5th of September at the new Quarrymen’s Arts Centre Creetown.
Tickets for all three shows are available from The Midsteeple Dumfries 01387 253 383 or dgartsfestival.org.uk
We would like to thank DG Unlimited, DG Arts Festival, Pete Renwick and Theatre Royal Dumfries for their kind and generous support.
