It’s not every day that Woodsiders get to visit the National Theatre within their own community. But on Saturday the 15th of July, residents were treated to a performance by the National Theatre of Scotland, at the Woodside Community centre.
NTS made a stop at Woodside, on their tour of local venues and community centres across Scotland. Tickets were ‘pay as you feel’ and Woodsiders took the opportunity to enjoy a different kind of evening out in their own community.
‘Thrown’, a play by Nat McCleary and Johnny McKnight follows five incredibly different women on their journey to compete in the Highland games as Backhold Wrestlers. Jo, Imogen, Chantelle, Helen and Pamela navigate their personal struggles, and find themselves grappling with their personal and what it truly means to be Scottish.
Backhold Wrestling, is the traditional wrestling style of Scotland. As the play explains, it involves locking your arms around your opponent, left arm over the others right, hands clasped but fingers not interlinked, then they try to throw one and other to the ground.
But the five were wrestling with much more than opponents in a tournament. Identity, whether it be gender, class, cultural or national, was the group’s main struggle throughout the piece.
Much like in backhold wrestling, the women found themselves trying to trap and topple each other, in an effort to better understand and define themselves and their struggles.
The audience were invited to challenge what it means to be Scottish. Who defines our National Identity, and does it really need to be a one size fits all, blanket cover?
The message is clear, there is no one definition of ‘being Scottish’, and we as individuals are not one dimensional, there are many contributing factors which make us who we are, we should not need to be less of one thing to feel like another. And yet, that is the reality that many face across the nation.
Impressed with the thought-provoking performance, the audience will certainly look forward to any future ventures of the National Theatre in Aberdeen.
Fersands and Fountain SCIO, Senior Community Worker, Claire Whyte commented, “it’s been a wonderful experience having such a huge production accessible in the heart of the community for our local residents, we hope they return again in the future”.
