Tamlane
Tamlane
by Edwin Stiven
Rating ****
Duddingston Kirk Garden
There are sprites in the twisted branches of Duddingston Manse garden's magnificent old conifer and they're coming for Tamlane,
the young man who has killed the white stag. Seven years TAMLANE will suffer in thrall to the queen of the fairy folk, and only true love can save him ... The lochside garden may be the coldest theatre in Edinburgh, but it is also becoming one of the more certain guarantees of Fringe quality in the hands of Charles Nowosielski's Theatre Alba. Anyone who enjoyed last year's magical The Shepherd Beguiled will find much that is familiar here: the conflict between the Church and a fairy world complete with child spirits in elfin rags, the battle for a captured soul, humour, physical energy and spoken Scots, and a musical accompaniment which punctuates and explains, to traditional Scottish melodies.
Tamlane was the play which launched Theatre Alba on the Fringe 18 years ago, and Eddie Stiven's text is deftly structured, full of spiky touches and a wholehearted emotional fire which builds to a stirring climax. it is delightfully served by a cast which rises to its challenges without reservation, and Irene Allan and Sean Kane are particularly impressive as the young lovers. Recommended to anyone with an extra jumper.
Ninian Dunnett
