Review: Wickies: The Vanishing Men of Eilean Mor, Park Theatre

Review: Wickies: The Vanishing Men of Eilean Mor, Park Theatre

We enter the Park 200 theatre in a cloud of fog to go to the ‘bleakest most forlorn place on earth’, the Flannel Isle’s Lighthouse on Eilean Mor, 24 miles out within the Atlantic Ocean. The keepers (‘wickies’) at this ‘stag’ lighthouse are down a person and so they’re despatched fisherman Thomas Marshall (Jamie Quinn) to make up the numbers. Thomas’s lack of even a correct raincoat leaves previous fingers Donald McArthur (Graeme Dalling) and James Ducat (Ewan Stewart) lower than impressed with the ‘wee bairn’ they’ve been caught with.

The common define of Wickies is a real story. Three lighthouse males did vanish from Eilean Mor in December 1900. No hint of them was ever discovered, no clarification found. Paul Morrissey’s script expands this with hints of the supernatural, from ghost tales advised by the lads to a few (small) bounce scares. His script is intentionally sluggish and regular, letting us spend time with the lads to get simply the tiniest glimpse into their each day life and routines. The unending lists of chores, the urgency to ALWAYS preserve the sunshine lit and the boredom and tedium. Shilpa T-Hyland’s route makes use of all of this to beautifully construct an environment; lonely, bleak, chilly and moist, often enlightened by previous Scottish folks songs and illicit booze. The forged are robust, presenting a pleasant steadiness between their characters. Quinn brings laughs as Marshall learns the ropes, Stewart’s Ducat is drained and weary, having seen all of it, whereas Dalling excels as McArthur, unsettled and with hints of rage and despair. 

Wickies is notable for completely implausible technical work. Zoë Hurwitz’s set design places us proper into the play’s single location, the lighthouse. The staging works with the design, utilizing the whole set, after which some, with the forged initially coming into via the viewers, singing sea shanties and previous Scottish people songs. A spiral staircase hangs from the ceiling to indicate the way in which as much as the lamp whereas a rickety ladder permits the forged to entry the small house above the stage. Then the lighthouse towers above us all.

Sound design from Nik Paget-Tomlinson together with Niall Bailey’s music offers us a formidable soundscape of the ocean and storms, and its beautifully complemented by Bethany Gupwell’s lighting design. It all contributes to the ambiance. There is lots of subtlety within the technical work too, the lighting cleverly designed to make use of the absence of sunshine, the darkish and the shadows and the sound subtly and superbly altering according to the ending.

Each of the forged, with a theatrical donning of a coat, step into the characters of the lads who arrived later to seek out the island abandoned with no clue as to what occurred to the unique occupants. They learn out precise entries from the deserted logbook and the telegrams despatched detailing the lacking males. There isn’t any tidy ending right here for the vanished males. It’s a lot to the play’s credit score that it doesn’t shrink back the very fact the thriller stays unsolved. Instead it does current one doubtless clarification, however it’s very a lot solely a suggestion. Over 100 years later it’s clear that we’ll by no means know for positive what actually occurred. But who is aware of, perhaps these wickies actually did see one thing in a darkish storm one night time, one thing that got here to seek out them?

Written by Paul Morrissey
Directed by Shilpa T-Hyland
Composer by Niall Bailey
Sound Designer by Nik Paget-Tomlinson
Set and costumes by Zoë Hurwitz
Lighting Design by Bethany Gupwell

Wickies: The Vanishing Men of Eilean Mor performs at Park Theatre till 31 December. Further info and bookings will be discovered right here.