The Dead Man’s Waltz

Summerhall

14-18 Aug

£8-£10

23.30

Last night, in a corner of the old Vetinary College that has been rebranded as an arts venue, I spent the most delightful hour with the creative intelligentsia of the wild & windy Isle of Skye. Blending cinematics, live music & the spoken word, a show was presented whose collective sensation touched every recess of the watcher’s psyche. The theme is death, though not of a morbid, gothic kind, but almost tender in its passing.

Taking our wooden seats in the old lecturing theatre, the space seemed perfect for the show, with the band below us on the floor & the film projected above them on the wall behind. The band are DEAD MAN’S WALTZ, whose haunting  sounds both accompained the cinema & supported their enchanting song-craft. Occasionaly, onto the floor, stepped writer & poet HAL DUNCAN, who read out his works with a highland relish.

The show flows like a dream for finer minds & it felt a privelige, for a tranquil while, to share that same dream. FOUR STARS

Reviewer – Damo Bullen