Dundee Rep
Morna Young’s new adaptation, directed by Finn den Hertog, captures the earthiness of rural life in early 1900s Scotland, but it needs to dig deeper
In front of a backdrop suggesting a sunset-streaked sky is set a square of bare brown earth. Loose soil is sectioned into four rows by wooden beams that hold it in shape as actors move on to and across it, dig into it and dance over it. The image suggests both ploughed field and graveyard (Emma Bailey’s design and Emma Jones’s lighting).
The impression of human transience in enduring nature is heightened by Finn den Hertog’s direction of Sunset Song: actor-musicians, seated to either side of this site, transit across it as characters, ghosts or imaginings. Cycles of nature are evoked by Vicki Manderson’s choreography: a chorus collectively repeating structured movements that suggest gestures of sowing or harvesting (elsewhere, movement is not so impressive).
Sunset Song is at Dundee Rep until 4 May then tours to Aberdeen (8-11 May), Inverness (16-18 May) and Edinburgh (28 May-8 June)
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