The bogs of Caithness and Sutherland have been the source of myth, legend, strange events and sightings throughout history. Kelpies, feachs, fairies and other weird and supernatural tales provide a rich folklore.
This is a story about the creatures, The Shee, who have travelled across the universe through time and who have chosen to reside beneath the great bog, the Moine. Why they have come and how long they have been there, no one will ever know. These creatures are travellers and the dimensions they exist in are beyond human knowledge.
The play concerns itself with how The Shee live and charts how humanity can learn from them, when a young hydrologist, Cianna, with the help of a local woman, Cait, discovers the truth behind the nuclear waste repository and the rocket launch site that an American company are planning to build on The Moine. It is Cait who tells Cianna about The Shee and how, because of the environmental degradation caused by these developments, they plan to leave Earth.
This not a fairy tale.
The Fallen Angels of the Moine is a kind of warning, a contemporary epic taking its audience on an extraordinary journey full of poetry, music and light, full of mystery, humour and hard facts. Its characters are ordinary people, the gods and the earth beneath our feet: Cait Mackay has an ancient bond with the Moine; Cianna Swann observes and analyses it; Robbie Oliphant, its political representative, is corrupted and possessed by the forces which control him – the Council, the Enterprise Company, the US defence contractor, MI5 and the Mad Irishman inside his head. Lucifer, Gabriel and the healer An Slanagher argue over the fate of the Moine while Belle O’ Rangag leads Cait to the bothy of enlightenment. And let’s not forget Feannag, the talking crow !
“It was a fantastical experience, a wonderful evening. I would love to see it performed outdoors.” Kiera Smith, Theatre Director & Dogstar Board Member
“It’s a big, big piece in the best sense of the word, conjuring the universe, fantastically theatrical and complicated and beautiful and sometimes very funny! At times last night it felt like the earliest kind of theatre, quite savage and primitive, made to conjure up the gods. The poetry of the words and the atmosphere of the piece are spine tingling.” Ali Maclaurin, Theatre Designer
“A complete success” Prof. Daniele Berton-Charriere, University of Clermont Auvergne