Converse for Leith Walk Campaign

Jun 27 2018 | By Thom Dibdin More

Pandorum support Save Leith Walk campaign

Mikey Burnett’s Capital Converse is to be revived for two performances at Leith Depot by Edinburgh-based Pandorum Theatre, in support of the Save Leith Walk campaign.

The play is set in a flat at the bottom of Leith Walk – close to where Drum Property Group want to demolish the red sandstone buildings at 106 – 154 Leith Walk and replace them with a towering conglomeration of student flats and a hotel.

Jack Jarvis Gouther and Gregor Mackay rehearse Capital Converse. Pic: Pandorum

The production takes place next week, on Tuesday 3 and Wednesday 4 July 2018. It’s set in the dead of winter on a bitterly cold December night when Frank and Malky are together in the flat they share at the foot of Leith Walk. Malky’s only recently been kicked off the dole and has all but a single pound coin to his name.

To make matters worse he’s also still reeling from being dumped by the love of his life and woman of his dreams. He is soon though about to discover that his best pal Frank may have had something to do with his current desperate state.

Director Lana Pheutan told Æ that she saw a university production of the play several years ago and is enjoying the challenge of moving into the director’s chair with her fellow recent graduates: Jack Jarvis Gouther and Gregor Mackay.

“It’s hilarious,” she says of the script. “And because it is so funny it’s easy to forget that the play raises issues of poverty, masculinity and friendship to name but a few. The relationship between the characters is incredibly complex and we’ve had a lot to play with in rehearsals.”

tackling the taboo

Pandorum is a new writing company with a commitment to tackling the taboo through dark comedy. Pheutan says that reviving Capital Converse and staging it in Leith Depot feels particularly right at the moment.

The Leith Walk Block under threat. Pic: Save Leith Walk campaign

She said: “Being set in Leith, it only felt right to perform it on the walk itself at Leith Depot, one of the buildings in danger of being demolished.

“The walk offers so much to such a vibrant community. The idea of building more accommodation, but taking away their facilities seems like something that could very well have happened in Capital Converse, the two men seem isolated and confined to their flat.

“There doesn’t seem to be much of a world outside the walls and if there is, it is one lacking in hope and opportunity which I fear is what could happen if the demolition of these buildings goes ahead.”