Amy Liptrot is having more than a moment. She is having a large part to play in this year’s Edinburgh Festival.
Her enormously successful memoir “The Outrun”, about her life in Orkney, her escape to bright lights and big cities, and her subsequent breakdown into alcoholism, has been adapted by Stef Smith for a stage production which opened at the Churchill Theatre and will run for all of this year’s official Festival.
Amy Liptrot is also to appear twice at the Book Festival, and the film version of “The Outrun” is to have its UK premiere at the Edinburgh Film Festival. Her work is definitely reaching a far wider audience than the many book groups and fans who have so far enjoyed her work.
The Stef Smith production at Churchill Theatre is directed by Vicky Featherstone, and the minimalist stage setting with its imaginative moving backdrop and skilful use of lighting and music provides an ever changing mood that reflects the bleakness and beauty of both Orkney and Liptrot’s later life.
Her father, played by Paul Brennen comes across as a somewhat awkward and introspective man, more in tune with Nature than Human Nature. Isis Hainsworth gives a spirited and feisty performance as the bright young woman interested in writing and ideas, eager to grasp life, and experience all that it has to offer, unfortunately leading to her alcoholism and mental fragility. Hainsworth carries this play its whole length – a constant presence on stage.
The action is accompanied by a wide range of music and chanting which adds its own mood to the curve of Liptrot’s life, as she seeks solace once more in Orkney and finds help and hope in its calming presence.
It is interesting to note that the National Theatre of Scotland Festival play “The Fifth Step” which is on later this month also deals with alcoholism, this time from a male perspective. The theme for this year’s Edinburgh Festival is “Rituals That Unite Us”.
I think I need a drink while I consider this
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The Outrun is on at Church Hill Theatre until August 24th