Turn The Cloth is Cutty Sark Theatre’s new Scottish folk horror play, luring with the premise of four young women sheltered in an unsettled small Scottish village, who must ward off a kelpie spirit seeking to abduct a wife for marriage.
The show sharply establishes a sinister, disconcerting atmosphere from opening with the haunting chanting of “traditional waulking songs.” What is most striking is not the affecting atmosphere however, but the singularity and distinction drawn between each performer and their counterparts. Emma Comfort delivers a stand-out performance as the soft and naive, little sister-like Kirsty, providing subtle yet strong support in the background of the play’s, at times, screeching presence — overt blood-curdling screams threatening to bury the play’s ghost-stricken storytelling. Isla Rose Perkins’ Maura effectively challenges traditional threads as the outspoken rebel child with swear words rattling out of a sharp-tongued mouth, a stark parallel to Niamh Cox as Eilidh, who stands her own ground, resolute against any threat to familiar, comfortable systems of prejudicial patriarchy. Similarly, Greer Montgomery offers a ghastly performance of surprising duality as Blythe, her quirky, bubbly demeanour crumbling into a later terrifying performance of possession, facilitating the play’s stab at the 1980s “camp-horror” genre.
It is such defining acting performances however, that leaves much to be desired from the production and set itself: drooping party streamers and dingy plastic candles were a little too on-the-nose, and unfortunately revealing of the lower budget. Particularly, the unmoving large table centre stage proved to be a stubborn interference, and left the stage overcrowded with little room for actors to manoeuvre, disallowing all four performances from fully flourishing in unison.
In the short 45-minute run-time, the play carves an entrancing portrait of traditional obligation, compulsory heterosexuality, and ritualistic girlhood, swiftly hitting the mark to represent the crux of the new theatre company. The eloquence of performance was superb and captivating, and cultivated an intricate dynamic — Little Women reimagined for a folk retelling. I simply wished that the play’s production matched the quality of its performers, for greater subtlety over dramatic flourishes, which would have completed a more encompassing walk into the chilling, eerily cultish cavern plagued by lingering, unearthly spirits.
Turn The Cloth is running until 31 August at Turret at Gilded Balloon Teviot. Buy tickets here.
Image by Sophie Gattis, provided for press use.
