Winner of the Infallibles Award 2017 at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival - London Premiere
The story of the selkie is a well-known folk tale in Scotland, Ireland and some of the Scandinavian countries. The selkie is a seal who can shed its hide to reveal a beautiful woman beneath. Most stories of the selkie include her falling in love with a human who steals her hide when he learns the truth so that she can never return to the sea and must remain bound to him. Cut off from her one true love, she grows desperate until she either finds the hide or kills herself.The piece opens with beautiful live singing that accompanies it throughout most of the performance, underscoring the magical realism and making it almost solid enough to touch. The actors move around the stage with great intention, creating atmosphere before starting the story......I felt like a child again, being read this story by my mother. It’s a great piece to bring your children to. The costumes and set are very fitting: just like fairy tales are not set in a certain period, just once upon a time, so this piece clearly takes place ‘once upon a time’. A time that could be now or 30 years from now. A fantastically well-done piece. (Broadway Baby)
'There is an island, far away, where the sea and the land are at war with one another. They have been for thirty years, ever since the sea lost her child to the hand of the land. To the human world. But, now. Here she stands, skin in hand, on the shoreline battle-line. She is right on time.'
In Tandem Theatre Company, through live music and spellbinding physicality, reclaims the Celtic myth of the Selkie. A Great Fear Of Shallow Living spins a womanly story about being torn, about needing to be two things, but having to be one.
Doors and bar open at 19.00, play starts at 19.30 sharp