College of Arts & Humanities

The Storm Watchers: Celebrating George Mackay Brown's Centenary

College of Arts | School of Culture & Creative Arts
Date: Thursday 12 May 2022
Time: 18:00 - 19:30
Venue: Andrew Stewart Cinema, Gilmorehill Centre
Category: Films and theatre
Speaker: Gerda Stevenson and Alan Riach
Website: thestormwatchers.eventbrite.co.uk

Join Gerda Stevenson and Alan Riach for an evening of poetry and film celebrating the centenary of George Mackay Brown. Reserve your space at thestormwatchers.eventbrite.co.uk

The play The Storm Watchers was originally written by George Mackay Brown as a short piece to be part of a pageant in the late Sixites in Stromness. The work was later performed in its own right with some additions. A powerful and poetic piece, the drama presents the lives, anxieties, regrets, fears and memories of women as they they deal with the waiting and the aftermath of a storm with all their men at sea.

Filmed in lockdown in Orkney this project has involved technology, remote rehearsal, mobile phone cameras and much more besides. In this year of Mackay Brown's 100th birthday, it brings to life one of his early but also most powerful pieces of theatre.

The evening will feature an introduction from the film's director Gerda Stevenson, readings of Mackay Brown's work by Alan Riach, as well as an audience Q&A hosted by Dr Sarah Neely.

The Storm Watchers is screened with the kind permission of St Magnus International Festival, who commissioned the film.

Back to Events