A silver branch of the mystic apple tree, laden with fruit, is your passport to the Otherworld....

Based on the books by F Marian McNeil, Scottish composer Gerard McBurney, Creative Director of Chicago Symphony Orchestra and composer for Théâtre de Complicité, creates a work celebrating and exploring Scotland's long association with pagan festivals and creatures.

From banshees to kelpies, changelings to witches, the Horned God to the Cailleach, the one-eyed genius of winter, this fascinating and innovative production begins its development with Youth Music Theatre: UK featuring 40 of the finest young actors and musicians from across Scotland and the rest of the UK.

Fabulous physical ensemble work, fantastical characters, and a cycle of extraordinary songs will transport the audience into a world of moon magic, spells and rites, rituals and Otherworlds that promise to be irresistibly enchanting....

Project Details

Venue: Aberdeen International Youth Festival
Project Dates: 23 July – 5 August
Performances: Sunday 3 August (8pm) /Monday 4 August (2.30pm & 8pm)

Review

Conjuring up joy and pain of seasons
Aberdeen Evening Express, 4/8/09

Scottish folk tales were at the centre of Youth Music Theatre: UK's fantastical adaptation of F Marian McNeill's books.
All four seasons - Lughnasa, Samhain, Imbolc and Beltane - were explored through a great combination of dance, song, music and acting. A cast of about 40 youngsters took to the theatre-in-the-round to portray a huge array of magical creatures, such as changelings, witches and kelpies through astounding physical theatre.
Bodies were torn apart, the landscape hounded by contorted bodies as the performers became ethereal dead and graceful but violent seas. The choral work set against the theatre was powerful and haunting, creating a sense of beauty and unease fittingly representing the joy and pain each season brings.
At once invigorating, unsettling, uplifting and spooky, the tireless dedication of these young performers cannot be understated. - Gareth Alexander

The Company

Elizabeth Rowe
Hannah Scanlon
Aveen Stewart
Kelsey Bennett
Lauren Cursiter
Riona Logan
Isla Van der Heiden
Lara Wauchope
Victoria Lennox
Rachel Waters
Imogen Adderley
Kirsten May Whitfield
Lucy Doogan
Nadine Gilmour
Amy Walsh
Alicia Marsden
Elizabeth Marr
Lauren Hamilton
Jessica Barker
Miriam Swainsbury
Carlie-Anne Chuchla
Natalie Mair
Edith Kirkwood
Tom Brady
Lawrence Murphy
Ophir Burton
Ivan Matsumoto
Ewan Black
Robert Jones
Craig Manson
Jasvinder Ahluwalia
Anthony Collesso
Dave Hearn
Megan Fraser
Emma Rushworth
Ewan Somers
Lauren Cunningham
Natasha Orren
James Stott
Abigail Watton