Arts in Aberdeen – by Duncan Harley


During the next two weeks, alongside Kinky Boots, there are a couple of must see's in and around Aberdeen.
Kinky Boots of course arrives at HMT for a two-week run on Tuesday 23rd April. Described as “A joyous story of Brit grit to high-heeled hit” it should at the very least be a hoot.

The blurb/fluff reads something like ‘Charlie Price is struggling to live up to his father’s expectations and continue the family business of Price & Son. With the shoe factory’s future hanging in the balance, help arrives in the unlikely but spectacular form of Lola - a fabulous performer in need of some sturdy new stilettos.’ So, what’s not to like.

On a more local level, we have both Lost at Sea and Doorways in Drumorty to look forward to.
Doorways dwells on the extraordinary tale of a Strichen lass by the name of Lorna Moon who made it big in Hollywood script-writing circles.
Penned by author/playwright Mike Gibb the play explores a curtain twitching normality last seen in Grassic Gibbons Mearns trilogy. Morality, questions of loyalty, community and family inhabit the tale and if the PR hype surrounding the traveling play is to believed in its entirety, Lorna's take on Strichen was nothing short of the miraculous. Rarely has small town syndrome been exposed so eloquently. Doorways in Drumorty plays at Aberdeen Arts Centre from Friday 19 April.

Then we have Lost at Sea.

Inspired by the loss of playwright Morna Young’s fisherman dad, this play is a personal tribute. A storm is brewing in a small fishing village. A young woman returns home, searching for answers about her father’s death. But as she begins to weave together the strands of her past, a mysterious force unravels family secrets.

Described as a ‘journey through a labyrinth of myth and memory in an epic tale spanning forty years of the fishing industry and featuring the voices of fishermen and their families in their own words, music, songs and Scots language’, Lost at Sea promises to be a powerful and evocative production.

As one who has visited and written about the Fisherman’s Memorial Chapel at Buckie, and been moved by the experience, I am looking mega-forward to Morna’s take on the ultimate price of fish.

Lost at Sea plays at HMT from Thu 9 - Sat 11 May.

Duncan Harley is the author of The A-Z of Curious Aberdeenshire and the recently released The Little History of Aberdeenshire. Both titles are available from Amazon.

Location: Aberdeen, UK

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