***** (5 stars)
“Mesmerizing”
Oh my goodness. I’m speechless…
And yet I have somehow to find words to describe the experience of the last hour, watching Mark Hannah’s mesmerizing performance.
I have to confess that I booked the show some time ago, and sat in the Netherbow theatre wondering what I was going to see, as I couldn’t remember anything about it. So when Mark strolled on stage, holding his half-empty beer glass, and gave us a poem in clear classical English beginning Stony spires and scenery speak to us before launching into a monologue in broad Edinburgh accent which crackled with energy and suppressed anger, I was, shall we say, a tad confused.
By the end of the show I was in awe – I’d attended a masterclass in a very different style of storytelling from the one I’d seen an hour before, and oh heavens it was a shattering experience. I’m very glad it was the final show of my day – anything else would have been a terrible anticlimax.
Mark pours out a constant stream of words – a positive maelstrom of emotions tumbling and surging, desperate to express the churning, incessant stream of his characters’ innermost thoughts and feelings. What slowly emerges from this is a very clear picture of three totally different individuals. Each has their own very distinctive voice, the richness of their language and their choice of words and expressions unique and very revealing.
Their lives are completely separate. Allan is a delivery driver in Edinburgh, desperate to get to his young daughter’s concert in St Giles’ cathedral; Liam, a student meteorologist, has fallen in love with Edinburgh resident Chloe, whom he met on an impulse-bought holiday on a Greek island; Maureen, whose grip on the present is not very strong, just wants to get out of the place her son’s put her in and go back to her home in Leith. Each is wrapped in their own story, but their lives cross fleetingly in the course of one day in ‘the Athens of the North’.
For those of us who live locally, there’s an added depth of richness in recognising, in knowing well, the streets, junctions, buildings and areas Allan, Liam and Maureen pass through. The city, its history, its buildings, and its effect on visitors, are an integral part of the narrative. Allan knows it well as he struggles to get his van to where it needs to be. Liam sees it for the first time, but knows he will have to come back. Maureen sees it as it is now, but also as it was fifty years ago – and possibly further back in time, too.
Mark Hannah’s writing is brilliant – rich, intense, multi-layered and immensely satisfying. His acutely observed, utterly believable characters are brought to life through their individual use of words and phrases, while his acting uses an extraordinary, constant outpouring of energy to present them to us on stage. We are caught up in their stories: it’s impossible not to be engaged with and moved by Allan, Liam and Maureen’s lives. We are brought full circle as we hear once again the ode to Edinburgh, Edina, the Athens of the North.
Mark’s performance on stage is simply incredible – it’s exhausting watching him; heaven only knows how he drained he feels at the final curtain. He’s greeted with a positive storm of applause, richly deserved.
This is a show you must not miss!
Athens of the north, Scottish Storytelling Centre (Venue 30) for more information go to: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/athens-of-the-north
ScotsGay Arts 