GHOST LIGHT (National Theatre of Scotland/Edinburgh International Festival)****

 

By Cal

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXajvQfXsu4&t=1s

Available until: Unknown

Ghost Light is described as a love letter from the National Theatre of Scotland, offering tantalising glimpses of their past work, along with hints of what we have to look forward to in the future.

At first, I wasn’t sure where ‘love letter’ came into it. It isn’t set up as a love letter. It’s a series of scenes. But then it seemed to click for me. Although not a traditional letter, this piece is undeniably full of love. Love for the theatre itself, love for the plays that have been and will be produced there, love for the audiences that have shared so many moments with them.

A ghost light is a light which is traditionally left burning in a closed theatre, switched on by the last person to leave and extinguished by the first person to arrive the next day.

Or the next year, as it will be for many theatres.

Hope Dickson Leach directs this fascinating piece, letting the camera take us into all corners of the theatre, showing more people and more stories everywhere it turns. The lighting is clever, showing some people lost in the darkness and others lit with the hope for the future.

The scenes are short and do little more than establishing characters and situation before moving on to somebody else. I recognised Peter Pan, but none of the other plays jumped out at me. Yet the many very talented actors keep drawing me in to their characters and their stories. Making me care. The regular audiences at the National Theatre of Scotland will have the advantage of me here and I know that if I was in their position, I would have been even more excited to watch and so happy to recognise the plays I’d seen and loved. I imagine there would be many I’d watched but not thought of for years and seeing a glimpse of them again would have brought back all the happiness of seeing the plays.

I’ve never seen a National Theatre of Scotland production – which is clearly my loss. At first, I wished the scenes were longer so I could see more of the stories, especially those that had particularly touched me. I wanted to know what had brought the characters to their current positions. I wanted to know what would happen next. But the stories were cut off.

At first, I admit I did think about being annoyed by this, but then I realised this mirrors so exactly the situation that so many people who are involved in theatre now find themselves in. So many plays have been cut short. Runs of performances which were never completed, rehearsals which did not lead to a performance, plays which were planned and perhaps cast, but which never even made it into rehearsal. And not just the plays, but people’s jobs too. The theatres are closed and some people don’t know when or if their own stories will continue. These processes were all cut short, leaving many people uncertain of what would happen next. But everyone has been left with special memories.

I’m wary of naming the actors. There’s a cast in order of appearance, but I really don’t want to get confused and name the wrong actor. All the actors bring their stories to life so vividly. Everyone will have their own favourites, the scenes that speak particularly to them.

I can’t say what will happen next. None of us can. But I can see there are so many stories here that are worth finishing. Stories which have drawn me in just from the tiniest glimpse.