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  • Céline Savatier-Lahondès

The Fallen Angels of the Moine by George Gunn in a Dogstar Theatre Cie Production

Dernière mise à jour : 11 nov. 2020

Céline Savatier-Lahondès & Danièle Berton-Charrière, POURPRE, IHRIM-CLERMONT, UMR 5317, CNRS.


The Zoom rehearsed reading took place on July 1st 2020. The technical side was controlled by Ruby Zajac. The audience was limited to forty listeners and viewers. In John O’ Groats Journal and Caithness Courrier George Gunn explained that the actors had rehearsed for two-and-a-half days before presenting the play as ‘a moved reading with script in hand and with basic moves. It is theatre stripped back to its basic essentials’.[1]

The play was initially written for three performers (two actresses and one actor) all with multi roles and ‘it features Thurso actress Helen Mackay, who plays Cait, a young crofter; Matthew Zajac, who will direct the [onstage] performance and plays Oliphant, a councillor; and Naomi Stirrat, who takes on the role of a hydrologist called Cianna’.[2] It is ‘a play about the proposed space hub in north Sutherland’ and Gunn describes it as ‘art meeting science and the environment... poetry and the bog... theatre and time travel... rockets and rhetoric’.[3]

The Moine is a national natural reserve of peatland (a protected bog land habitat) in mid-Argyll[4] said to have been the source of supernatural tales, myths and legends. Gunn explains that his play ‘is a story about The Kindly Ones – otherworld visitors – who have travelled across the universe and through time and who have chosen to reside beneath the Moine’.[5]

The ‘Bog’ (a recurrent reference in the play) is both a contextualizing locus and the main depositary of the rich heritage of the Celtic past. The focus is on that particular place sheltering supernatural creatures from an ancient past underneath, and appealing to scientists, politicians and capitalist investors working on the industrialization of its landscape on the surface:

Environmental calamity now threatens their chosen home. Cianna, with the help of Cait, who has extraordinary preternatural gifts, discovers the reality of what has been going on, about the truth behind a nearby rocket launch site or space hub and what the company who are constructing it – and who Cianna is working for – propose for the Moine.[6]

The rich playtext of The Fallen Angels of the Moine combines metatheatricality and intertextuality, ecocriticim and genre. The title (The Fallen Angels […]) recalls medieval mysteries (among which Creation), and so does the presence of Gods (creators or their deputies on earth/ Yahvé…), angels (Gabriel spying upon earth) and deities. Many biblical allusions back up this reference. The structure of the classical framed play with supra/super-natural creatures (will they be onstage in future productions?) derives from this background (theatrical fable) and offers a different perspective on the main story (diegesis at the core of the play) and a viewpoint on human affairs.

Yet, the Scottish ‘History’ (past) imposes intertwined pre-Christian and Christian ‘myths’ and creeds… such as the crows, the wild geese, the sith (shee) and their cow’s milk rituals etc. that belong to the Scottish pre-Christian and pre-modern myths and folklore. They draw a link with the Irish sidhe and the common roots between the two nations (Irish ‘History’ and Brian Friel are not far away either; is there not ‘a mad Irishman inside Scottish heads’? FAoLM). A sequence with masks enhances the mystic dimension.

This prelapsarian ‘world’ symbolising one form of the past clashes with the modernity of the space hub project (planned on the Moine peninsula in north Sutherland). The fairies are said to be the good people of peace in opposition to the humans in a manichean preset frame. The struggle between good and evil recalls medieval morality plays. It is explicitly stated in the text. It confers an epic side to the story. It is emphasised thanks to a direct reference to mystic Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667) within the textual network.

Other oppositions are developed through the characters of the hydrologist (a scientist), the crofter and the politician etc.. Ecocriticism stresses industrial capitalism entailing the industrialisation of the landscape leading to its destruction (politicians ‘poison the bog’). The scientific working on nature is thus questioned. Human humility —or pride— is too. Is the appropriation of nature by human beings a right? The author’s use of choric-like leitmotivs like ‘Corruption kills’ or ‘Observation is revelation’ emphasises key-points over and over again.

The bog is at the very center of the play; it is constantly under focus (is it an allegory of the Scottish Highlands and it recalls that Mòine is peat in Scottish Gaelic). It is between the Under-World (the Fairies’ Other World) and the human world, itself a universe of oppositions.

George Gunn explained that the name of the character called An Slanagher comes from Gaelic an neach-slànachaidh which means the healer. He explained that ‘This character’s job is to connect the real world with the other world. Why is any of this important? Well, I have this romantic notion that transforming observation into revelation is the job of the artist, or more specifically in my field, that of the writer. It’s what makes us useful to our fellow humans. Allegedly.’[7] Oliphan is said to be possessed by demons and corrupted by US companies. References to the MI5 secret services add another dimension to the story.

Beside the relation between land and people, one of the main topics concerns the rights of nature, justice for nature, opposed to land used as a tool of power. George Gunn’s writing both embeds and interweaves realistic environmental concerns (allusions to planning permissions, measurements) and poetry (poems and songs), past and present. The presence of the baby symbolizes the future too. The playwright’s political concern and commitment flow from the topic under discussion highlighted by historical landmarks. Their precisely dated events are like white stones showing the right way (the Picts are hinted at and so is the 1784 Cheviot era…). Shakespeare’s treatment of Macbeth is alluded to, thereby extending the intertextual dramatic network.

Playwright George Gunn’s political statement and outcry ooze from every line of the playtext denouncing the ‘Highlands’ inherited oppression’, the sad reality of ‘paternalism’, of ‘betrayal’ and ‘colonisation’… (G. Gunn in post-show discussion). To him, ‘every piece is a struggle to articulate something’; he believes that ‘theatre is the last place of freedom’, that ‘it is about democracy’ and that ‘the subjects and the languages are the writer’s responsibility’. (G. Gunn in post-show discussion). The Fallen Angels of the Moine is the evidence of the philosophical, political and artistic values he defends.

George Gunn used Scotland’s three national languages (and included geolect Caithness Scots too). They resonate with their own music(s) and intonation(s) through the performers’ voices. The textual lyricism is amplified through their differences and combinations. Each character expresses feelings and opinions with the linguistic medium that fits the subject of his discourse best. Whether standard or not, a language means more than words can express and imposes a large significant context. To the audience, each conveyed a different music and meaning.

Despite the technical challenges, the Zoom virtual show and following discussion (two hours and a half together) were a complete success: no disruption spoilt it, the sound and images were up to standard and the actors’ voices and elocution were clear. Theatrically, the performers’ playing multiple parts and their passing from one to the other, remained easy to understand. Body language helped too and it was easier than radio drama. The visual provided some complementary elements that were precious aid. The three languages (and the geolect) demanded a lot of attention and concentration from non-native speakers. Their musicality was very interesting and impressive. They sounded significant and harmonious.

George Gunn has decided to make The Fallen Angels of the Moine a work-in-progress and when theatres reopen the spectators will have the opportunity to enjoy a new version of the play performed onstage.

General conclusion: ‘live entertainment is evolving online to be a lifetime in lockdown’ (Ian Youngs)

The 2020 pandemic coronavirus has affected people throughout the world and across borders, preventing human gatherings and imposing many activities, including live theatrical performances, to be at a stand-still. Yet, as BBC News reporter Ian Youngs put it, ‘From gigs to plays and quizzes, live entertainment has moved online during coronavirus lockdown and creative minds are coming up with new ideas to give us back some of the human connection we’ve lost’[8]. To counter the virus and correlated morosity with their own ‘weapons’, and to make their arts survive and live on, these people relied on both the media of the past and the present and offered (visual and/or audio) oxymoronic virtual matinées or nights out on lockdown, from home.

This way, David Greig’s Adventures with the Painted and George Gunn’s The Fallen Angels of the Moine provided confined minds with two ‘virtual’ dramatic and poetic journeys into the past and present of Scotland. From the Picts and Romans to a space hub, the two playwrights defended the culture and unity of their nation highlighting its specificity (the human and other worlds together). All the actors involved in these virtual performances, offstage, on or off screens, stood as the outstanding mouthpieces of a profession fighting for their art and good causes.


Learn more about the Dogstar Theatre Cie here: http://www.dogstartheatre.co.uk


[1]https://www.johnogroat-journal.co.uk/news/space-hub-play-about-to-take-off-in-thurso-193436/, accessed August 20th 2020. [2]Ibid. [3]Ibid. [4]https://www.nature.scot/enjoying-outdoors/scotlands-national-nature-reserves/moine-mhor-nnr/moine-mhor-nnr-about-reserve, accessed August 20th 2020. [5]Op. cit. https://www.johnogroat-journal.co.uk/news/space-hub-play-about-to-take-off-in-thurso-193436/, accessed August 20th 2020. [6] Ibid. [7] https://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2020/02/27/the-ice-cream-cone-of-desire/, accessed August 31st 2020. [8] Ian Youngs, (BBC NEWS, Entertainment & arts reporter, May 18th 2020: https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-52619188, accessed August 31st 2020

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