Fringe favourite BoonDog Theatre (Orlando / Goody) presents PISKIE*, a brand new beautiful story about the tug of war between fantasy and reality. Written and performed by Lucy Roslyn and directed by Jamie Firth, PISKIE is a show for all those who believe there is still a little magic to be found in the world.
Ouida Burt was raised on the fantasy stories of her hometown – where the piskies of Dartmoor are waiting to lead dreamers astray. The family joked that her father – a somnambulist – was at risk. He would sleepwalk, “piskie-led” – so he said – by Ouida’s cherished imaginary friend “Bert”. But, one night, he sleepwalked out of their family home and onto the moors… never to return.
After the search was called off, the family was forced to accept that he had most likely abandoned them; agreeing, from that point on, to give up all notion of fantastical things.
Years later, Ouida is now a respected psychologist, an academic, and a realist. In PISKIE, the audience joins her as she leads a talk on fear. As usual, she’s here to debunk the irrational and fantastic – to explain away the inexplicable with cold, hard evidence. It is time to turn a light on all those things that go bump in the night.
But one of the things that keeps Ouida up at night cannot be explained. Something that followed her back from the moors all those years ago. Could “Bert” really be… back?
PISKIE interrogates the entrenchment of ideas, showing that even the most rational people have irrational beliefs, and asks why it is so easy to give advice that you do not take. A beautiful story about magic versus cynicism that sends the audience away charmed, and just a little bit spooked.
*Piskie is a Cornish word for Pixie.
