Blinded by the Light
★★★★☆ Heartfelt
Traverse: Wed 21 May 2025
Review by Hugh Simpson
Blinded by the Light, which stopped off at the Traverse for one night only as part of a tour, is a deeply felt and very well performed piece with clear links to the community that inspired it.
Sylvia Dow’s play, from Sylvian Productions in association with the Barony Theatre, was originally one of the Traverse’s Fringe Breakfast plays 11 years ago. It features two narratives set in the tunnel that was built under the Forth linking Kinneil Colliery in Bo’ness with Fife’s Valleyfield pit.
Holly Howden Gilchrist and the cast of Blinded by the Light. Pic: Kelman Greig-Kicks / NeonEight Ltd
Half of the play is based on the true story of a sit-in (or ‘stay doon’) conducted in 1982 in the tunnel by 12 Bo’ness miners protesting against the impending closure of the Kinneil. This links with a story set in the future, where remnants of the human race have taken shelter in the same tunnel after environmental collapse.
The miners are teenager Jerry Sneddon (Andrew Rothney), his father old-school Communist Matt (Barrie Hunter) and the taciturn Andy (Rhys Anderson). The future element features Lily Seven (Holly Howden Gilchrist) and Freddie Nine (Reece Montague), who are responsible for conserving the books that have been saved from the previous civilisation – although they are forbidden from actually reading them.
On Becky Minto’s appropriately cramped, sloping set, and with Colin Grenfell’s sepulchral lighting and Philip Pinsky’s doomy sound design, the two stories exist side by side. Under the direction of Philip Howard, this works well in what is a production that conjures up a mood of claustrophobia.
magic realism
It is all highly atmospheric and well written. Dow, who was teaching at Bo’ness Academy at the time of the closure, states that the historical section is ‘not in any way a documentary’. There is certainly a magic realism element to it all, to go alongside the good old-fashioned consciousness-raising, political theatre feel to stories of working people betrayed by their representatives of all political stripes.
Rothney and Howden Gilchrist are the main focus in each of the two narrative strands, and impress. Rothney’s depiction of Jerry as both the young man who ‘knew nothing’ and the older man in the present day looking back are extremely fine, while Howden Gilchrist’s portrayal of a teenager eager for knowledge has a real magic to it.
The cast of Blinded by the Light. Pic: Kelman Greig-Kicks / NeonEight Ltd.
The supporting cast are also impressive. Hunter’s committed trade unionist has a melancholic edge that is very well done, while Anderson’s angry pragmatism and Montague’s pining after his colleague are also successfully evoked.
While the interlinking of the stories largely comes off, there are times when it is more awkward. Explicit parallels that are drawn at either end of the narrative only serve to draw attention to the fact that, for much of the remainder, the links between the stories are not that clearly drawn, and occasionally seem forced. The play is also on the short side, ending just as the characters have become fully established.
associations
The future-set elements suffer from some of the usual pitfalls of such stage representations. Details are left understandably but frustratingly vague. The language is also the kind of thing that can turn audiences off – it is almost identical to current usage, but with the odd word thrown in that makes it sound suspiciously old-fashioned; everything is ‘goodsome’, for example. And, of course, there is that title, which already has associations that have nothing to do with what is on stage here.
Nevertheless, there is an integrity to the production, and undoubted quality to the performances, that makes this extremely valuable.
Running time: One hour and 5 minutes (no interval)
Traverse Theatre, 10 Cambridge St, EH1 2ED
Wednesday 21 May 2025
One performance: 8pm
Run ended
The cast of Blinded by the Light. Pic: Kelman Greig-Kicks / NeonEight Ltd.
Blinded by the Light will tour to:
Friday 23 May 7.30 pm Byre Theatre, St Andrews
Saturday 24 May 7.30 pm Macrobert Arts Centre, Stirling
Information and tickets at: www.sylvianproductions.co.uk
ENDS
