Soil & Soul is a vivid, inspirational book by Alastair McIntosh describing how Alastair’s early years as a ghillie on the Isle of Lewis shaped his life’s work as a prominent land rights activist. In 2018 sruth-mara began developing an ambitious stage version of the book with a script by playwright and novelist Alan Bissett., culminating in its first live performance at An Lanntair on 30 October 2019, on the opening night of Faclan: the Hebridean Book Festival.
The Faclan performance was directed by Laura Cameron-Lewis, with Dolina Maclennan, John Stahl, Elspeth Turner and Daibhidh Walker and music by Mairi Campbell. Rehearsals took place at Aras Nam Fir Chlis in Uig.
While the project’s progress was then hindered by the Covid-19 lockdown, and by the death of our friend John Stahl (who played Alastair), we hope to stage a full production in the future.
In an email to sruth-mara following its first performance, Alastair McIntosh wrote the following:
“The audience response has been overwhelming, as I think you’ll have picked up. Several people said to me how important this is for the island and a wider Scotland today. These were people at the cutting edge of things, two of them chairs of community trusts, with one of them saying that she really needed to hear what she heard that night to help her to carry a very difficult situation that she’s working with. My mother was sent an email by a friend of hers who is a hotelier at Doune Braes on the West Side. She said she’d had guests in who had attended. They’d been blown away, and said that the way it was produced made them feel as if they were part of the story. It was remarked what an honour it was to have had Dr Finlay Macleod there. If Dolina is the matriarch of island tradition bearing, he must these days be pretty much the patriarch. Dolina’s feminine portrayal of Stone Eagle worked very well for people. They delighted at seeing her and several mentioned that she and the play reminded them of The Cheviot, The Stag and The Black Black Oil and said how timely that is. That only now, all these years down the line, are people ready for a deeper cultural appreciation of it all.”
Prominent admirers of Alastair’s book include Thom Yorke of Radiohead, journalist and activist George Monbiot, who has called it “a world-changing book”, and Ricky Ross of Deacon Blue, who has described Alastair as “a living prophet”. The Sunday Herald likened Soil and Soul to Naomi Klein’s international bestseller No Logo.
We’re really proud of this project, delighted to have created it here on Lewis (following Alastair’s wise advice to ‘dig where you stand’), and grateful to An Lanntair for giving us the opportunity to share it with an enthusiastic Hebridean audience.
Soil & Soul is supported by the National Lottery through Creative Scotland, and An Lanntair.
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