The world premiere of Hold Fast will be a tour of rural Scottish village halls and community spaces in Strathspey this September.
The show is a wild, tender celebration of our enduring relationships with the landscape and each other. Developed specifically for village halls by Herald Angel Award winner artist Ellie Dubois (No Show; Nosedive) and composer Sarah Hayes (Admiral Fallow), Hold Fast is a spellbinding family show exploring our communities and the water running through it.
Community is at the heart of Hold Fast, which will visit locations 30 miles apart from each other. The idea is to bring contemporary theatre to audiences who would usually have to travel great distances in order to see it.
Hold Fast is an ode to the shared celebration within communities in village settings. Hold Fast begins by seeing how two art forms, contemporary circus and innovative folk music, are entwined. The dynamic, lyrical show is inspired by ideas about women and the sea, folklore and living rurally.
The show comprises devisers Nikki Rummer (Knot, Nikkie & JD), Arielle Lauzon (Exploded Circus, Mimbre), Joana Dias (a regular collaborator with Upswing, the ENO, Scarabeus, Certain Blacks, Greenwich+Docklands International Festival) and Freya Stokka (Lifted, Mimbre). They will be joined by musicians Anna Massie (Blazin’ Fiddles), Laura Jane Wilkie (Kinnaris Quintet), Jenn Butterworth (Musician of the Year 2019 Scots Trad Music Awards) and Rachel Newton (The Furrow Collective).
Ellie Dubois, creator and director, comments, Sarah and I first met over five years ago now to talk about my idea to create a circus show made for village halls using contemporary folk music. While it has taken us a long time to get here I am so happy that we have taken our time to reach the point we are now at. I have been making work for 10 years and this is the first time that a full tour of something that I have made will be shown in the place where I live. That feels like a really important milestone to me and the start of what I hope to be a lifetime of creating work in and for the rural community that I live in.
Hold Fast will open in September at the Kincraig Community Hall and then visit Newtonmore Village Hall, Talla Nan Ros Community Hall, Carrbridge Village Hall, Boat of Garten Community Hall, Osprey Arena, MacDonald Aviemore Resort and Grantown Grammar School.
