Three Wee Crows roost at St Conans in Festival of the Sea

Three Wee Crows, the Argyll performance company based in Taynuilt, is presenting one of their signature shows at St Conan’s Kirk in Lochawe, at 8.00pm on 28th May, as part of the magnificent Festival of the Sea, running from 21st-31st May.

The programme is a selection of the short performances written by and for the company around ‘local myths from the ancient lands of Lorne’.

These are designed to offer a point of intersection between visitors and this part of Argyll, offering a sort of Alice in Wonderland experience of eating the biscuit and entering another world. In this case they listen and watch rather than munch – but the possibility of transformation and transportation is what Three Wee Crows’ performance work is all about.

The company has used St Conan’s Kirk before and finds the space a flexible and powerful one, open to the sort of work they do – demonstrated in the photograph on the left.

The programme at St Conan’s on 28th May

• A Cailleach: the witch of winter who washes her plaid in a whirlpool
• Snow in Summer: recounts the story of Clan MacIntyre and their epic journey across the sea from Skye to Glen Noe
• Trafalgar: tells of the Iron Furnace at Bonawe in Taynuilt, Nelson’s cannon balls and the battle of Trafalgar. It was written for the company Ian Hamilton.
• Grande Design: is the history of the lochside St Conan’s Kirk and its architect, Walter Campbell.
• Deirdre: and her centuries-old lament, heard echoing down the ages on both sides of the Irish Sea, conjures her twin passions for Loch Etive and her lost love – and her grief at their passing.
• The Bruce: impresses two schoolboys who have strayed into his chapel in this kirk.
• The Ghosts of Cockrow – Expelled: is about the greed of the landowners and Highland Clearances, written for the company by Len Brown.
• Corryvreckan: is a rollicking rhyme of the sea and shipwreck and was written by Dr Charles Blatherwick (now there’s a name to conjure with) in 1871.
• The Brides of Loch Awe: celebrates three Bridgets and their transatlantic voyage in search of a mate, written for the company by Sheila Hannon.

Note: all uncredited dramas above have been written by the cast.