Dogstar Theatre Presents the Premiere of THE STORNOWAY WAY

Dogstar Theatre Company continues their association with An Lanntair in presenting the world premiere of The Stornoway Way. Adapted from the novel by Kevin MacNeil, the production opens at An Lanntair, Isle of Lewis, on Friday 30 August at 8pm and will be touring Scotland throughout October.

In this romantic tragicomedy Roman Stornoway (Naomi Stirrat), a struggling musician, and his best friend Eilidh (Rachel Kennedy) are disaffected underachievers, who use alcohol to fuel and delay their dreams of escape from the island. Eventually they make their way to the city, where Roman is smitten by the mysterious Hungarian student Eva (Chloe-Ann Tylor), and things go terribly wrong.

Irreverent, humorous and honest, this is a chance to experience and enjoy a bittersweet theatrical romcom, twisted, squeezed out and hungover, with a variety of voices from Lewis.

These are characters who are outcast from, yet inescapably part of their Hebridean culture, whether they are physically there or not, on the margins of the margin. They leave and return, struggling with their identity and their alienation from both society and each other, searching for love as a path to salvation. At times, the actors include the audience in the storytelling, inviting them to be part of this poetic, provocative and funny ceilidh play.

Kevin MacNeil's 2005 debut novel was hailed by The Scotsman as "The best Scottish book since Trainspotting...full of wisdom, jokes, poetic language and mind-burning imagery". It was a Herald book of the year "whose honest bleakness is outdone by its sheer good humour and energy" (Ali Smith). The Independent described it as "a novel of consistently hilarious verbal invention." MacNeil sees the play as a development from the novel, and a more mature and inclusive take on his earlier work.

The play is written in English and Gaelic, with a cast of three young actors Rachel Kennedy, Naomi Stirrat and Chloe-Ann Tylor and directed by Matthew Zajac, who has recently toured Scotland for the sixth time with his play the phenomenally successful The Tailor of Inverness playing to over 3000 people.

An equally important role is music and sound created by the award-winning Pippa Murphy with Indy originals and traditional songs by Willie Campbell, Kevin MacNeil and Colin Macleod. Set and Costume design is by Ali Maclaurin, Video by Jim Hope and Lighting design by Andrew Wilson.

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