Outlying Islands by David Greig. Jermyn Street Theatre, 16B Jermyn Street, London SW1 until 15 March 2025, 4☆☆☆☆. Review: William Russell.

Photo Credit: Alex Brenner.

Outlying Islands by David Greig. Jermyn Street Theatre, 16B Jermyn Street, London SW1 until 15 March 2025,

4☆☆☆☆. Review: William Russell.

“Stunning, stimulating revival.”

Strongly cast and well directed by Jessica Lazar this latest revival of David Greig's 2002 Olivier award winning play has stood the passage of time remarkably well and has, indeed, acquired fresh resonances in a world rather different from then and from when the action is set – 1939. It is even of war and two frankly gormless young scientists have been sent by the Ministry of Defence to the outlying Hebridean island – they think it is to survey the bird population the human one, allegedly pagan, having fled long ago. It is populated only by feral sheep and the birds. But the reason is far more sinister than that. They travel with a young woman on the boat from the adjacent large and populated island, end up breaking in to what had been the chapel for the vanished islanders to set up house and meet Kirk, the owner of the island, a mainlander to whom the sheep belong, a man deeply interested in whatever he can get from the interlopers and their employers. The young woman is his niece Ellen whose jugs the lads admire. The winds howl, the rain falls and the days pass, discoveries are made, and sex is in the air. Fellow students at Oxford Robert (Bruce Langley), the more dominant of the two becomes obsessed with the birds and the way they live, while John, the Scot (Fred Woodley Evans), is gauche and very much under his thumb. There is a homo-erotic hint in the air. Both find the niece Ellen (Whitney Kehinde) attractive – she is looking for anyone who will take her away to the big world where there are cinemas and is devoted to Laurel & Hardy, a highlight being when they all perform the Trail of the Lonesome Pine from the pair's 1937 film. The twitchers finally discover why they are there – and sinister the reason proves to be, the name Gruinard should reveal why. Their wild, rain drenched windy idyll is shattered, Kirk, who has health problems dies, and has to be buried, while Robert gets ever more obsessed with the birds and Ellen and John tentatively start to get acquainted. When Robert turns up it looks as if a threesome is on the cards but John is appalled, rejects the idea and Robert goes back to his birds. Then the Ministry ship to take them off turns up but only two people leave. The play has its occasional lapses when it all gets rather slow moving, but the pluses far outweigh the minuses. Among the former is a superb set by Anna Lewis which manages with amazing simplicity to create the outlying island world, one in which people no longer have any place.

Cast

Bruce Langley – Robert

Fred Woodley Evans – John

Kevin McMonagle -Kirk/Captain

Whitney Kehinde – Ellen

Creatives

Director -Jessica Lazar

Set & Costumes Designer – Anna Lewis

Lighting Designer – David Doyle

Sound Designer – Christopher Preece