As part of its WorldStage series, Chicago Shakespeare Theater brings the lyrical tale Islander, a folk-inspired musical soundscape from Scotland, to the Windy City after an acclaimed off-Broadway run and a Best New Musical award from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Amy Draper conceived and directs the 90-minute two-hander, with associate direction by Eve Nichol, book by Stewart Melton, music and lyrics by Finn Anderson.
Four actors rotate in and out of the multiple roles in pairs. On December 2, Stephanie MacGaraidh (an earnest redhead with bangs and braids) primarily played Arran, the 16-year-old apprentice whale keeper from Setasea, and Sylvie Stenson (cute and accessible with pigtail poufs) played Eilidh (pronounced AY-lee), the wee island of Kinnan’s youngest inhabitant at age 15. The duo also narrates the intermissionless story with handheld mics, and seamlessly program a synthesizer live on stage throughout, an homage to their electronica female forebears, those “sisters with transistors.”
Sylvie Stenson as Eilidh and Stephanie MacGaraidh as Arran. Photo by Steve Tanner.
The result is not only a notable contribution to the feminist continuum, but also a lovely new story with echoes of previous mythology. The fictional isle of Kinnan evokes the ostracized isolation in The Tempest, the silo-ing of modern life, and the political bubbles that imprison us all. The scenic claustrophobia even hearkens back to the seclusion of COVID quarantine. There’s also a Lake Wobegon feeling of small town life, where everybody knows and talks about everybody else’s business.
Like many mermaid narratives, Arran mysteriously appears onshore, in this instance to attend to her charge, the whale calf Arna. It’s the eve of the land-based midsummer celebrations, as liminal a conceit as dry vs. wet concerns, youth vs. maturity, end of life vs. new beginnings. Eilidh finds the uncertain girl and nurtures a tentative friendship with the only other teenager on the kidless Kinnan. The actors also play all the other island inhabitants, with a navy jumpsuit unbuttoned and pulled down to echo fins, or a pregnant belly suggested by a baggy, olive cable-knit cardigan (costumes by Hahnji Jang). The circle of life is cleverly portrayed, as well as the Scottish propensity for the argy-bargy, aka spirited arguments.
Like whales themselves, this “fish out of water” tale is powered by mystical song. MacGaraidh and Stenson’s clear, connected voices blend beautifully throughout the 13 folkish songs, accompanied by their own, just-recorded harmonies, along with percussive hand claps and foot taps (sound design by Sam Kusnetz). That sound cloud envelops the stage and audience like an ocean hugging an archipelago, along with a fog machine pumping out an appropriately murky and mysterious atmosphere. The whale sounds are very much like actual whales (probably minkes around Scotland), especially when they embark on a Jonah-like rescue mission along the “whale road,” a Beowulf reference. The ambient noise of omnipresent Scottish drizzle and pelting rain is spot on too.
Sylvie Stenson as Eilidh and Stephanie MacGaraidh as Arran. Photo by Steve Tanner.
The actors stalk every inch of the small black-box stage in their sensible hiking boots, perambulating around the simple frosted fiberglass half-sugar bowl set (by Emma Bailey), which simulates an island, a path along the shore, an abandoned schoolhouse, a womb, the circle of life. The emerging island of the Fin Folk recalls Brigadoon, and the entire enterprise is also a reminder about human’s connection to the sea, and the environment as a whole, a timely reminder as we slowly boil our planet.
As John Donne said, “no man is an island, entire of itself. Mist to mist, drops to drops. For water thou art, and unto water shalt thou return. Islands are metaphors of the heart, no matter what poet says otherwise.” The fresh new musical Islander is a bracing baptism, a reminder to hang onto human connections, including family both inherited and found, while simultaneously shepherding nature.
Islander runs through December 17 at Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier. Tickets start at $65 and are available at 312-595-5600.
For more information on this and other plays, see theatreinchicago.com.
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