For a change of scenery and a breath of fresh air look no further than Pirates and Mermaids, Poorboy Theatre’s arresting take on love, life and the meaning of home. Edinburgh is replaced by New York City as the audience is led into ‘Central Park’ (the gardens of The Scottish Storytelling Centre) and sat on some benches. Also seated there is a man wearing a kilt, eager to show everyone pictures on his phone of the family and friends he has left back in Scotland. Cameron, it transpires, is a man torn between two worlds: America, where he has a good job in the throbbing cityscape of Manhattan and Scotland, where his childhood sweetheart Eilidh lives. He wants her to move over to America, she wants him to move back home and this ongoing conflict grows ever more noticeable in their turbulent long distance relationship.
At its heart, Pirates and Mermaids is a good old fashioned love story: a ‘fairytale for adults’ as the tagline states. It’s about believing love can conquer all, following your heart, discovering home really is where the heart is and all that good stuff. However, the emphasis of the performance doesn’t lie in the plotline but rather in the telling of the story itself. Cameron (Jeremiah Reynolds) is the vessel through which the whole story flows and the ninety minute performance feels more like a chat with a distant cousin or a friend you haven’t seen in a really long time than a piece of theatre.
The show is performed almost entirely sitting down, leaving no elaborate gestures or theatrical flourishes to hide behind. This is a performance based on voice, facial expression and eye contact, and Reynolds never wavers. He plays every character, altering an accent or costume piece as he goes. Whilst at first this seems a bit jarring, it soon settles down as characters become recognisable by their traits.
Pirates and Mermaids is a quiet, humble production of traditional storytelling. Sitting outside in the garden, use the time to take a deep breath and reconnect with what it really means to be told a story: it will be ninety minutes well spent.
