Saturday, October 5

Tag: Maria MacDonell

LIFE: Maria MacDonell – Scottish Storytelling Centre
Scotland

LIFE: Maria MacDonell – Scottish Storytelling Centre

I am afraid of drawing. I don’t know why. This play is set in a drawing class, and the audience is invited to sketch and doodle throughout. Now is the time to embrace my phobia. I am welcomed by The Artist (Leo MacNeill), a reassuring presence. “We are all artists”, he says. I am given paper and pencils, but no eraser. Every mark we make remains on the page. Estelle (Maria MacDonell, who also wrote the piece) cuts through The Artist’s whimsy with a shard of cynicism, at least to begin with. She thinks he’s pretentious. The Artist helps Estelle open up, and she tells us about her life, her hopes and regrets, her love of graveyards and her career as an artist’s model. Estelle tells her story through the medium of folk tales. Afterwards, MacDonnell tells me that Estelle is so damage...