Decision time

On Friday we had a long meeting, in part to close an eventful year at the theatre (and in our venue - the Boo), but also to decide how we would proceed with the Angus McPhee project. The grant from the Foyle Foundation gives us a firm foundation, and we agreed to use the money for precisely the work it was awarded for - to further research and prepare for a show about Angus, his life and his work, and that a large part will be created in the Uists. Over the next few weeks we'll be in touch with our partners in the project and discuss how we will move things forward in 2011.

Being far from the land that I know

Is what has stirred me in my sadness

Because nostalgia wounds me 

Since there are none around me of the folk I know

I will touch the harp-strings of my voice

To see if I can fashion a little song for me

About green, grassy Uist of the glens

And something of the way of the people who live there

The last glimpse of the sun

After it has circled the whole day

May be seen from my land

Just before it rises again on it.

I must cut short my account for today

Since my time has gone

And even if I lived twelve times as long as a stag

I could not recount all the beauties of Uist.

The translated first and last verses of Moladh Uibhist, "In Praise of Uist", written (in the Gaelic) by the late Roderick MacKay of North Uist. A version by Julie Fowlis closes her second album "Mar a tha mo Chridhe" and hearing it again it can't but remind me of Angus and his, perhaps necessary, long exile from home. 

What now?

This has been a busy period at Horse + Bamboo Theatre as we've been preparing for and rehearsing a new show for Christmas. This is now showing at our venue, the Boo, and the building has been packed each day with excited school groups and, in the evenings and at weekends, family audiences. It has meant that thinking about the implications of the news about funding for Angus has been put to one side. 

But next week we'll meet to look at where we are with all of this. We have an offer of £15,000 from the Foyle Foundation to start developing the project. On the other hand Creative Scotland have told us that they cannot contribute towards developing the show when our base is in England. Where that leaves us isn't entirely obvious. For one thing, we would be developing large sections of 'Angus' in Scotland, specifically on the Uists, and some of this will involve several Scottish artists making important creative contributions to the production. For another, the whole project is tied into various strands of work with Scottish partners - working with Theatre Hebrides, for example. 

So all of this needs to be teased out. Clearly the Foyle money is a major plus as it enables subsequent bids for funds to be put in the context of us already having a major part of the necessary support in place. We'll need to discuss going back to Creative Scotland on a different basis, and we'll also need to consider exactly what parts of the work can go ahead using the Foyle Foundation money. One obvious possibility will be that the timetable for the production will, once again, be changed in order to give us more time to put the changes into practice, and also to allow more time to go through the various funding processes. 

In the meantime, above is another photograph of Angus from Joyce Laings 'Weaver of Grass'. This, again by Jim Waugh, taken in 1978, of Angus weaving in the grounds of Craig Dunain Hospital.

Angus and technique

The picture above shows Angus, weaving in the grounds of Craig Dunain. He is wearing one of his wonderful self-made hats. This image is from Joyce Laing's 'Weaver of Grass' book and was taken by Jim Waugh in 1978. 

Thanks to Tim Johnston who wrote a comment on my entry last weekend referring to sùgan. Tim writes "..the image (referring to the coil of woven grass I have at our workshop) ... shows a grass three strand plait rather than a sùgan rope that were usually one ply and made with a thraw or craw hook."

This took me back to Joyce Laing's book and the chapter titled 'His Method of Weaving', which as a non-weaver I must admit I had previously skimmed over when reading the book. The close up of Angus weaving (taken by Tim Neal) is from that chapter. Much of this is taken up with a description of the way Angus was able to use the sheep's wool he gathered from barbed-wire fences and still roughly spin and use the resulting yarn. Not knitting as such, but he apparently invented a way of making vertical strips of plied fleece, using short broken off pieces of fence wire or even wood fragments as a gauge or needle. 

I imagine he would have been more familiar with the plaiting of grass. As Tim says "Angus may well have learnt and used plaiting in his early days to make horse collars that were often plaited then stitched together", and this observation is supported by Joyce in her book, as well as the information boards in Kildonan Museum that I mentioned in the same post.

Bad news - and good

On Monday we received a letter from Creative Scotland. Unfortunately the application that Helen had spent so long on was not able to be considered by them, as part of the application was asking for support towards physically making the production. Creative Scotland can only support applications from groups based outside of Scotland for touring and other creative work within the country; they cannot subsidise that part of the work which relates to creating the piece. Odd we didn't pick up on this, or it hadn't been made clear at the various meetings or during the many phone calls and emails that had been made as part of the process of putting the application together. 

Still, at least we didn't have to wait until March to be told this news. Helen has been on leave so it's not clear what her next step will be but clearly the door remains open for a modified application that falls within these guidelines. Over the next week or two the whole company will be discussing our future plans within the context of the radical shake up of arts funding imposed by the government; the Angus show will clearly form part of this discussion.

Then on Tuesday another letter arrived. This time from the Foyle Foundation - Helen had applied to the Foundation some time ago. For luck I put the letter in Red Riding Hood's* basket and took it upstairs to the office. Clearly the fairy-tale magic worked - PHF are offering us funding to support the development of a production about Angus McPhee. 


* Magic Red Riding Hood Funding Baskets can now be purchased by contacting the Horse + Bamboo Theatre office at info@horseandbamboo.org

Sùgan

Rope woven from straw or hay is something made and used by peoples throughout the world. It features, for example, in Shinto artifacts where it is used for ceremonial and ritual decoration, and even to make rope bridges. 

At the Museum in Kildonan on South Uist there's a display panel with the title Gnionih Mo Lamhan which I think we can translate as 'hand work', or 'hand craft'. It goes on to say:

"The people of South Uist used the natural materials available on the island to make many of the things they needed during their working lives. 

"Sùgan (hay rope) was made by twisting hay and rushes to make a rope. The rope would be use for securing hay stacks and thatching buildings.

"Rope was also made from heather... Heather was pulled, not cut and the turf that was attached to the end was cleaned....two strands of heather were twisted together to make a rope. Heather rope was used round the thatch of the house, round hay stacks and basically to anchor anything that needed to be secure. When the rope was no longer needed it was put into balls and then it was buried in a field drain to keep it fresh and pliable."

These three photographs are of rope used in this way on the remains of the old house where Angus was raised. The technique of weaving hay described above is exactly what Angus used in making many of the objects during his years at Craig Dunain, and in the short section of home movie used in Nick Higgins film, Hidden Gifts, Angus can be seen endlessly working the grass and hay into ropes such as these.  

The picture above is a coil I have of Angus's sùgan, woven during his last years in hospital - we keep it in a black bin-bag at the Boo, hoping it may provide a little good luck towards getting this show on the road . 

Weaver of Grass

Yesterday Helen sent off the application to Creative Scotland. If we're successful in the bid it will enable us to work with and alongside a large number of Scottish artists and organisations to create a performance about Angus McPhee - and a whole lot more besides. 

Taigh Chearsabhagh, Theatre Hebrides, the Gaelic Music Course at Lews Castle College, Kildonan Visitor Centre and Museum, all on the Outer Islands, will be directly involved. Joyce Laing and the Art Extraordinary Trust in Fife will also be part of the project, as will artists Joanne B.Kaar, Andy MacKinnon and Chris Spears - again, based on the Islands or Highlands. So with the exception of Horse + Bamboo Theatre a bid entirely based on work in Scotland. 

Now it's waiting to see what happens....there's also a bid been made to Scotland's Islands Festival. So time to remember where it all started. Joyce Laing's lovely little book, Weaver of Grass *, published by the Taigh Chearsabhagh Trust. 


* ISBN 0 9535814 1 1

A Celtic pantheon

The Gundestrup Cauldron. I photographed this at the Nationalmuseet in Copenhagen last summer. An awe-inspiring object that I think shows a Celtic pantheon. You can just glimpse Cernunnus, the horned god, to the right at the back, on the inside of the vessel. I want our story of Angus to hint, just hint, at the Celtic stories and culture that remained in the Uists and other Western Islands when they have all but disappeared from mainland of Europe.

Here, one last image from Horse + Bamboo's 1984 journey to the islands, courtesy of Dennis Thorpe of The Guardian. The second has now started in earnest - Helen has almost completed the first application for support for touring a production about Angus McPhee. It has to be submitted by Monday. The past few days we've been discussing the final details with partners such as Theatre Hebrides, Taigh Chearsabhagh and Lews Castle College on Benbecula.