Elegies – The Scottish Storytelling Centre, Edinburgh

Dominic Corr

Nov 12

Produced by Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland

Based on Hamish Henderson's Elegies for the Dead in Cyrenaica

Choreographed by Helen Gould and George Adams

Rating: 4 out of 5.

In a time where the power of storytelling is manipulated into turning a day of peace into propaganda, it's vital to recognise the weight which words, rhetoric, images and movements carry; and how they pivot into action.

On the seventy-fifth anniversary of the publication of Hamish Henderson's 'Elegies For the Dead in Cyrenaica' - occurring during the same anniversary year for the Declaration of the Bill on Human Rights and falling on Armistice Day, Elegies, a new piece of dance-theatre from the Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland, serves not only as a respectful and sincere adaptation of Henderson's work but as a communal understanding and demonstration utilising grief and history to flourish art and creative solutions to communicate to audiences.

A composite performance with three principal components, weaved together to form a complete experience, Elegies adapts Henderson's work into an evening of their bittersweet spoken word extracts performed with Morag Anderson and Stephen Watt, while live music and movement flesh out the centre of the stage, all conducted under shifting images of historical photography and poignant symbolism. The main crux lies within the extracts performed by Anderson and Watt, with tremendously adept skill, they weave between extracts from Henderson's collective, with particular care and relish within Acroma and Highland Jebel.

The choreography from Helen Goul and George Adams performed with Nicola Thomson and Edwin Wen, ripples through the music and spoken word as an accompanying piece – often illustrating a physical manifestation of the tone of the extracts. It's often playful or 'every day', such as playing cards or embracing one another – the humbleness of it all striking and soothing, finding a sense of calm amidst it all. There is little in the way of personifying war or violence, thankfully, and cannily processed. Solo moments where the body stretches and strains offer as clear an insight into Gould and Adams' intentions as any shock-value or literal interpretation.

Cera Impala provides a series of string performances throughout the evening, a gloriously unintrusive scoring which pairs as sublimely as the movement. There are little breaks, however, with percussive movements, and a chilling but inventive use of Bang Snaps, tiny firework capsules renowned for irritating any passing by a local school. Utilised as gunfire towards the finale extract, Roddy Simpson's audio and lighting visuals project shifting from scenes of desert into signifiers and symbols associated with the war, the striking use of IWM E 18952, a curated picture from the Imperial War Museum of The British Army in Africa, 1942.

Vocally, Impala performs short lyrical sequences, and when they do, the room holds - fearful of missing a moment. Raw, poignant, and dependably carried through the Netherbow Theatre Impala offers a rarely honest vocal performance stripped back to its emotion and authentic rasp. Elegies is a compact show which could benefit from taking a moment to breathe and reflect and utilising the silence so often attributed. Without the accompanying programme, some audiences may become lost in the structure – but Elegies works closer to an experience, rather than a traditional narrative. And where it may seem disconnected for some audiences, it weaves together all elements into something sincere and striking.

There is no beauty in war. But within Elegies, laced amidst the pain and harrowing horror, beauty flourishes in sombre and considerate ways. Superlative, short and concise, Elegies adapts Henderson's work into a powerful recitation of spoken word, paired with tightly and nuanced choreography to offer a firm and resilient response which champions the skills and power of storytelling as a first line of defence of natural, communal, and reverent good against those who would utilise it for ill.