Kilmartin Glen II - A "Half Life" Review

...continuing on our Kilmartin trip.

So we'd managed to blag ourselves some tickets for the Biggest Thing In Town... was it all hype? They'd done a very good job advertising it, every visitor to the Argyll area and Kilmartin in particular was very aware that it was happening, with suitably enigmatic posters up near all the major sites and fliers in the cafes and B&B's.

There were to be two evening perfomances, 8.30 and 10.30. The 8.30 was full so 10.30 was to be, due to get back at 12.30.

Our mission (should we choose to accept it) was to arrive at the meeting point in Lochgilphead to get bussed to the site, with instructions to wrap up warm for sitting outside. It wasn't made clear where the event was happening (or indeed what it was to involve) but we were fairly certain it was to be near Achnabreck, because there's a large forest around it and plenty of parking space.

So we drove and parked and found the tent and handed over our tickets and got a little book and sat and waited. The time came and everyone piled onto the old double-deckers, we could hardly all get on the seats for the fleecy waterproofs etc! It had been a drier day with nothing heavier than drizzle, but you never know up here.

We got talking (or rather talked at) by one of the people working on the show - a local woman who was getting rather excited. She said she wouldn't give it away but it was great and then (well, she kept giving stuff away!)

After a short trip of maybe 10 minutes, we arrived at the site. Everyone had been gossiping excitedly, all typical local accents of course (so most of them sounded like retired art teachers from Surrey). It was dark so we weren't really sure where we were! We were herded off the bus and up the hill, passed the shipping containers which presumably acted as dressing rooms for the performers.

The path was lit and we followed the leader until we reached the top, where we were handed a foam shape for our bums to sit on. The "stage" was there shouting at us, lit in red and yellow, all spikey and spooky between the trees.

The seats were wooden decks on a terrace which looked as if it was pretty permanent. The chatty woman on the bus had told us that they were keeping it here and they'd already had enquiries about weddings...

There was a small "shed" to the left of the "stage" where the musicians lived, they had just enough light to see what they were doing and we could see inside the netting - two people with what turned out to be strings and percussion.

By the way, when I say "stage", I find it hard to describe what we were looking at really. It was obviously the centre of our attention, clearly constructed from felled trees from the location, huge logs held together to form a raised platform with a thorny crown heading up towards the trees. Surrounding it were existing trees, moving in the wind.

I did my best to capture this without a flash, but it was difficult!





I won't be too specific about the performance, because we didn't know what to expect and were pleasantly surprised at what we got. There were three main actors, plus two characters which had it been Shakespeare would have probably been called "spirits". One star of the show who won't be in the programme was the bat, who was swooping to snack on the insects attracted by the lights during the show. Nice touch!

Ropes and pulleys and strong bodies were involved. References were made to the prehistory of the area, specifically rock art and burials and death and what it all means ...

The music was metallic and non-melodic, adding to the atmosphere together with the shwooshing of the trees in the quieter bits.

The play (for that is what it was, really, despite pretentions) lasted about an hour and there were a few gasps and chatters from the audience... the seating area was far from full but after all this was after all probably a dress-rehearsal.

After the ovation we filtered out, all handed back our arsepads and headed back downhill, past the frogs and logs and back onto the bus to Lochgilphead.

I was smiling all the way back, the bus was buzzing and folk were talking about the best bits; this was a great addition to the experience and something you wouldn't get from a normal night at the theatre (unless you spend your time in the bar)

Thinking about it now, I could have benefitted from a flask of hot choc for the bus back, or perhaps the "beer tent" at the start could have had more than booklets to hand out ... a wee nip to take the nip off as't'were ...

I would also say that if there's anyone coming to this event who doesn't know much about the history of the area, and they come just for this performance, it's a shame that they don't know how close they are to one of the most important rock art sites in the country. We were expecting this to play much more of a part in the whole thing, not just verbally but physically. But we're biased, perhaps.

So back to the B&B and ready for the next day, when we would visit one of the participating sites and stop off at Connect...