Hebridean Treasure: Lost & Found captivatingly blends song, dance and storytelling with live Scottish and South Asian music to conjure up the landscapes of the ancient Scottish Isles and the inhabitants’ deep connection with the rhythms of nature. A universal story of exile, suffering and the loss of age-old wisdom, the piece moves through grief and tragedy to bring a message of hope for a new way of life that cherishes our Celtic cultural heritage.
The words of John Phillip Newell and the music of critically acclaimed composer and Gaelic singer Mischa Macpherson weave around the compelling performance of Bharatanatyam dancer Kirsten Newell as they invite you into a world that was once lost but is being found once again.
The production is based on the work of Alexander Carmichael (1832-1912), a Scottish folklorist whose writings and data were brought together in the Carmina Gadelica, a compendium of prayers, hymns, and folklore gathered from the Gaelic-speaking regions between 1860 and 1909.
The use of Bharatanatyam dance, oral storytelling, songs in Gaelic, Tamil and Hindi, and the combination of Celtic and Carnatic music, reflects the many parallels between ancient Celtic and Vedic culture, not only with regard to language but also the similarities in social and folk customs, mythology and traditional musical form.
Photo credit: Mark Richards-AuroraFindhorn
