Oir Nan Speur | The Edge of the Sky is a bilingual theatrical adaptation of Italian astrophysicist Roberto Trotta’s acclaimed short book, in which we attempt to explain the origins of the Universe with only the 1000 most commonly used words in Gaelic and English.
The show had its first ‘work in progress’ performance at An Lanntair on Friday 18 February 2022 as part of the Hebridean Dark Skies Festival, with support from Creative Scotland and Bòrd na Gàidhlig. sruth-mara is currently developing it towards a full production.
‘That was quite a night – absolutely amazing level of ambition and always interesting. I had good conversations with others in the audience and we went on for a beer to talk further – not many shows evoke that kind of response.’ Ian Stephen.
Oir Nan Speur is adapted and directed by Laura Cameron-Lewis, in collaboration with Elspeth Turner, Daibhidh Walker, and Roberto Trotta.
Thanks to An Lanntair, especially its incredible technical team, for making the show’s first public performance possible. Thanks also to Will Lamb at the University of Edinburgh, and to poet Rody Gorman, for helping us put together our list of the 1000 most commonly used words in Gaelic.
As part of the project’s development, sruth-mara commissioned Peter Mackay, Elspeth Turner and Rody Gorman to create new pieces of writing in Gaelic, each inspired by Roberto Trotta’s book and, wherever possible, also restricting themselves to only the 1000 most commonly used words in Gaelic. The commissions were supported by funding from Bòrd Na Gàidhlig.
Roberto and Laura discuss the project in this podcast for the Hebridean Dark Skies Festival.
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