by Iain Finlay MacLeod
Directed by Beckie Mills
Designed by Anna Bliss Scully
Cast: Nicholas Karimi. Kirsty Stuart. Robert Willox.
Presented by alabaster in association with Neil McPherson for the Finborough Theatre

The English Premiere of a haunting new play by Iain Finlay MacLeod

**** Four Stars
Whatsonstage, RemoteGoat.com

Sundays and Mondays, 12, 13, 19, 20, 26 and 27 July 2009

How many stories can a simple map hold?

Dan is a survivor, but in hiding from the world. Invalided out of the first Gulf War with shellshock, exiled from his native Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, he now lives in a hospital on the mainland. He spends his time charting his memories of home and war on maps, sheets and rocks, remembering even the smallest detail, and conjuring mythical stories of home with his unpredictable fellow inmate, Lube.

Anne works for the Ordnance Survey and has been sent way out west to add place names and geographical features to the maps of Lewis. She is convinced that Dan’s obsession with mapping his past is a treasure trove for the public good. But can Dan find the courage to confront the past and return to the community he left behind?

An intimate, funny and deeply moving tale of resilience, memory and cartography, uncovering a few of the mysterious stories that make up the history of the British Isles.

I was a Beautiful Day was commissioned by the Traverse Theatre in 2005 to open the new An Lanntair Arts Centre in Stornoway, Lewis, before embarking on a Scottish tour including the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh.

Iain Finlay MacLeod is one of Scotland’s most prolific contemporary Scots Gaelic writers, having written many works for theatre, radio, film and television. Writing in both English and his native Scots Gaelic, Iain has also directed numerous documentaries on Celtic folklore and arts, and was series director of the BAFTA-winning show TACSI, which won Best Arts Series in the Scottish BAFTA’s and Best Entertainment Programme at the Celtic Film and Television Festival. Television includes Machair (also Series Editor) which won a Writers’ Guild Award for Best Foreign Language Serial Drama. His work for theatre includes St Kilda (Gaelic Arts Agency), Broke, Homers, Alexander Salamander and Road from the Isles (Traverse Theatre), Atman and Salvage (Tosg Theatre Company) and Cliff Dancing (National Gaelic Youth Theatre). His work for BBC Radio 4 includes The Watergaw, The Gold Digger and an adaptation of Angela Carter's The Kitchen Child; other radio includes Frozen and an adaptation of The Pearlfisher for BBC Radio Scotland. His film work includes The Inaccessible Pinnacle (Young Films). He is also the author of several novels.

The cast includes Nicholas Karimi whose credits include Macbeth (National Theatre), Ensnared (Soho Theatre), Nova Scotia, Seven Devils, The Pearlfisher (all Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh), Writers’ Jamboree (National Theatre of Scotland), Divorce Me, Darling (Union Theatre) and Mountain Language (BAC). Television credits include Bodywatching (BBC Television); Kirsty Stuart’s stage credits include Fast Labour (Hampstead Theatre). Television includes Doctors, Sea of Souls III (both BBC Television) and The Marchioness (Granada Television). Film includes Closing the Ring. Radio includes Cry Babies (BBC Radio 4); Robert Willox’s many stage credits include Oedipus, Her Naked Skin (both National Theatre), Peribanez (Young Vic), Rutherford and Son (Salisbury Playhouse), Troilus and Cressida, Month in the Country (both Royal Shakespeare Company) and The Snow Palace (Sphinx Theatre Company). His extensive television credits include Trial and Retribution, Master at Arms, Wedding Belles, Doctors, Taggart, Inside Waco, Low Winter Sun, Blackbeard, Empire, Raphael, Spooks, Julius Caesar, The Key, Ultimate Force, Monarch of the Glen, The Bill, Out of Darkness and Casualty. Film includes The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, A Knight’s Tale, Beowulf, Master at Arms, Asylum and Den of Lions.

Director Beckie Mills was an Assistant Director for the Royal Shakespeare Company through 2008, assisting Conall Morrison on his critically acclaimed production of The Taming of the Shrew (Stratford-upon-Avon, London and Tour). Other assistant directing includes Don John (Royal Shakespeare Company/Kneehigh Theatre). She will shortly be returning to the Royal Shakespeare Company to direct a new writing project based on The Comedy of Errors. Directing includes Heath/Cliff, a clown piece inspired by King Lear for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Site-specific productions of Cabaret, Alice in Wonderland, Fear and Misery in the Third Reich (Bristol Old Vic), Over the Edge (Bristol Zoo Gardens), The End of the World as We Know It (Lightship John Sebastian) – as well as Cahoots’ Macbeth (King’s Head Theatre), Write Here Write Now (Bristol Old Vic Studio), The Melancholy Hussar (King’s Head and Etcetera Theatres), and her own play, Practice. Her last project was directing the world premiere of Alban, a new opera performed in St Albans Cathedral with a cast of over 100.

The Press on I Was a Beautiful Day in Edinburgh
“I Was a Beautiful Day is an explosively poetic two-hour meditation on the relationship between Gaelic culture and language…richly imaginative and witty… there's an energy and passion in MacLeod's writing that makes the play continuously interesting” Four Stars, Joyce Macmillan, The Scotsman

The Press on I Was a Beautiful Day

**** Four Stars Whatsonstage.com
**** Four Stars RemoteGoat.com

“Beckie Mills' direction rarely falters in a production that does justice to the Finborough's reputation as one of the 'most stimulating venues in London'.'” Alex MacDonald, Whatsonstage.com

“Strangely compelling…There isn’t long to catch this play, and it would be a shame to miss it. I Was a Beautiful Day is a kind of lyrical Scots version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” Michael Spring, Theatreworld

“Impeccably played by all concerned and wonderfully evocative of the Scottish islands and their place in history….This is a wonderfully lyrical evocation of what it is to belong, and is at once both moving and uplifting.” Michael Spring, Theatreworld

“MacLeod's love for the Gaelic language, its oral tradition and Lewis itself is clearly evident throughout the text.” Matt Boothman, British Theatre Guide

“Writer Iain Finlay MacLeod has created a wonderful evocation of a man with real connections to history and to the land. This play is funny, exciting and uplifting. Catch it if you can.” Michael Spring, Remotegoat

“Robert Willox plays Dan with the deliberately curtailed movements and speech patterns of a man holding his trained violent instincts in check. The only time he appears calm and centred, as opposed to nervous and hostile, is when giving in to those instincts.” Matt Boothman, British Theatre Guide

“Nicholas Karimi…. Excellent” Alex MacDonald, Whatsonstage.com

“Kirsty Stuart completes an outstanding cast for this production.” Alex MacDonald, Whatsonstage.com