Turn The Cloth (Fringe review) 4 Stars ****

Glasgow based theatre company Cutty Sark set out to bring the traditions of Scottish folk history, beliefs and mythologies up to date. Well, here we do get to 1989 with the story of the Kelpie reimagined. In a remote Scottish island, on the night of the first storm, tradition dictates that all unmarried women must in brides’ dresses’ head to the Hall to turn the cloth and bolster the defences against the Kelpie that emerges from the sea. Their task is to find an unmarried woman, kiss them and take them off into the sea.

Scottish mythology is filled with these tales and what Eve Miller has done is not only update it but bring it into the heteronormative debate of what a single girl should be doing with her life.

The writing is crisp, often very funny and holds the horror of the circumstances in tune with being in a turret high above the throng. Isla Rose Perkins (Maura) is the questioning quine, Greer Montgomery (Blythe) is the one who disappears in the storm whilst Niamh Cox (Eilidh) is the buttoned-up traditionalist, and Emma Comfort (Kirsty) is the naïve catalyst in the shadows – or is she naïve? Maura wants to find Blythe – their relationship clearly more than friends for Maura – but Kirsty’s sister was the last unmarried bride to go missing. She believes the Kelpie took her and drives the rest to a form of hysteria and recklessness.

It is directed in the small claustrophobic space which adds to the feeling we are trapped as they are in this cycle of expectation. References to blockbusters and Lambrini with an actual video onstage helps add to the women in time when tradition for women, despite a female prime minister asked them to be subservient.

And so as they turn the cloth, weaving and singing, the storm rages and they worry about their friend, Blythe turns up – or does she? The final decision by Maura with the woman she loves, in front of her, declaring her love, is whether or not she takes a chance. The whole script is filled with subtlety and is played perfectly by the young cast.   

In Cutty Sark’s third return, they have demonstrated a fine hand at updating our mythology.

Turn the Cloth, Gilded Balloon Teviot until 31^st August,