Performances on:
Thursday 17 July 7pm
Friday 18 July 7pm
Saturday 19 July 2pm & 7pm. Both performances on Saturday have BSL interpretation.
The venue is accessible to wheel-chair users.
MAIDEN MOTHER MAGE
Written and directed by Rebecca Sharp. Music by Alex South. Artwork by Frances Law.
Performed by Israela Efomi, Taylor Dyson, Fletcher Mathers; and Alex South (music).
Costume by Jessica Brettle. BSL interpretation by Lisa Li.
Supported by Creative Scotland.
A performance of three interweaving poetic monologues, with music: three versions of Thaney, later known as St Teneu / Tenew, or St Enoch. Thaney was a 6th century CE Brittonic princess, daughter of Leudonis or King Lot at Traprain Law in the Kingdom of Gododdin (Lothian). She holds many stories, connecting her to pagan and Druidic roots, and to Arthurian legend - but never in her own words. Cherished by many, today she is venerated in the Christian faith as Saint Teneu or Thaney, Protector of the Abused; and as St Enoch of Glasgow, mother of St Mungo.
According to legend, Thaney was assaulted aged seventeen and, discovering she was pregnant, was thrown from Traprain Law as punishment, either by her father or upon his orders. She survived the fall to be punished a second time (some say was accused of witchcraft), placed in an oarless boat and set into the Firth of Forth at Aberlady Bay. She again survived to wash ashore at Culross in Fife, where she was taken in by St Serf, founder of an early church (later the site of Culross Abbey). There she had her son, Kentigern / Mungo, who would go on to found the city of Glasgow.
There have been varying claims to her story over the centuries: Thaney enters myth, both human being and story-bearer. Fact grows indiscernible from fiction, and Thaney holds the space between. We wonder what role she would choose for herself now, as she rises during times of violence and abuses of power.
We meet her here in triple form: as MAIDEN (exiled girl of seventeen), MOTHER (of Mungo and other creations), and MAGE (shaman, abbess, Cailleach). Giving voice to the outcast and voiceless, Thaney shows us how we might repair divisions that were cast upon us all so long ago.
Supported by Creative Scotland, Historic Environment Scotland, Glasgow Cathedral Festival, Fife Writes, the Centre for Poetic Innovation, and Fife Coast & Countryside Trust (Fife Pilgrim Way).
DISABILITY ACCESSIBLE
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