Dundee-based theatre company Elfie Picket’s new show Dolly Parton Saved My Life will tour around Dundee community centres this autumn.
Created by Taylor Dyson and directed by Calum Kelly, the play follows Bonnie, a twenty-five-year-old teacher who lives in Dundee. She has never met her mother and was raised by her grandmother Kat. When she is preparing to move out, she finds a box of her grandmother’s possessions that reveals lots of unanswered questions about her grandmother’s life. The discovery leads to a crisis, and Bonnie decides to reconnect with her musical past.
The play was written by Dyson during lockdown, and it touches on personal themes such as family, grief, and music’s power to bring people together.
“I did find it hard to write that in some ways, but in some ways it was quite easy,” she said. “It was quite a lot of things that were inspired by my life, my family’s lives.”
Dyson recalls always being around music, particularly Dolly Parton’s, during her childhood. Later, she expressed an interest in imitation, which led her to study acting at Dundee and Angus College. Her and Kelly both graduated from the University of Glasgow in 2018, where Dyson studied Theatre and Performance Practices and Kelly studied Playwriting and Dramaturgy. Together they co-founded Elfie Picket Theatre.
Inspired by work from John McGrath and the 7:84 Theatre Company, Elfie Picket aims to create theatre about socio-political issues in Scotland which has strong female and working-class representation. Their debut production Ane City is a coming-of-age tale that follows a working class Dundonian girl who is disillusioned with her life. The show saw success at the 2019 Prague Fringe Festival and Edinburgh Fringe, and won the 2019 Assembly Roxie Theatre award.
Dyson will star in the show alongside four actor-musicians: Jade Anderson, Belle Kinnear, Poppy Lironi and Sarah Keiller. One cast member is Glasweigan, but the rest are from Dundee or Perth. Although finding local actors was challenging, as only a small proportion of those who applied for the parts were from Dundee, it was important for Dyson that it is performed by those who are familiar with Dundonian culture.
Before the tour, the production was performed as a staged reading at Hilltown Community Centre to mark Dundee Women’s Festival in March. Due to social distancing measures, their capacity was limited, but the performance sold out and there was a large waiting list for tickets.
“All the feedback was really positive, actually. So that’s always really nice to see,” said Kelly. “People wrote what we’d hoped they would write and that was getting to see stories about Dundee performed by…people from the local area.”
“We had a lot of feedback saying that it was good to just actually go to a community centre and be able to see it,” Dyson added.
The play lasts for two hours, and excluding the opening performance, which took place at Dock Street Studios as part of Dundee Fringe, it will be followed by a live set from a local musician, a quiz, and karaoke. Tickets are free, and Dyson and Kelly hope that the informal nature of the production will help to encourage more people to visit community centres and meet more people from their local area.
“It’s just basically go in and not have to do anything, and just enjoy something and meet people who live nearby,” Kelly said. “I think that’s for us, a big driving force behind [the play]”
While they have no concrete plans for the future—Kelly jokes that life as a freelance theatre producer involves lots of waiting on responses to emails—,the duo are keen for Dolly Parton Saved My Life to reach more people, and visit more of Dundee’s community spaces, in addition to touring to rural venues across Scotland.
There are a small number of tickets for Dolly Parton Saved My Life available to reserve through Eventbrite, but more tickets are available by contacting the venues directly.
Words by Ellen Leslie
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