Outlying Islands is a play where silence speaks as much as words, where the vastness of an unnamed rock becomes a stage for the push and pull of human desire, survival, and the inevitable march of history. The weight of change hangs over the island like an approaching storm, creeping ever closer but never fully revealing itself until it is too late. Directed by Jessica Lazar and brought to life in the intimacy of Jermyn Street Theatre, this production hums with restrained intensity, its characters tangled in a web of unspoken truths and unacknowledged fear.
Set on the eve of war, two young scientists, Robert and John, arrive on a remote Scottish island to study bird life, unaware that they are stepping into a space where the past clings stubbornly to the land, and the future feels like a distant threat. Accompanied by Kirk, the island’s leaseholder, and his niece Ellen, they find themselves caught in a delicate, shifting balance of power, attraction, and hidden agendas. Beneath the surface of this seemingly quiet study, something more sinister lurks. The island is not just a place; it is a presence, an entity that listens, that watches, that waits. And when the truth of their mission is finally unearthed, the play descends into something darker, more primal, more irreversible.
The staging is deceptively simple, Anna Lewis’s set evoking both the eerie isolation of the island and the untamed forces that swirl within its boundaries. The lighting by David Doyle works in stark contrast; pools of warmth and shadow delineating spaces where safety is fleeting, where even a flicker of candlelight can feel like a warning rather than a comfort. Christopher Preece’s sound design wraps around the production like the howl of wind against the cliffs; subtle, ominous, and impossible to ignore.
Bruce Langley delivers a charged, restless performance as Robert, a man whose curiosity is both his strength and his downfall. Fred Woodley Evans, in his professional debut, is remarkable as John; his quiet intensity speaking volumes, every hesitation laced with meaning. Kevin McMonagle as Kirk is the embodiment of a man wed to the land, bound by a history that cannot be severed. And then there is Whitney Kehinde as Ellen, the still point in the chaos, her presence an echo of all the choices made for women before they could make them for themselves. Her performance lingers, even after she has left the stage.
The power of Outlying Islands is in its restraint. There are no grand declarations, no sweeping gestures; just the slow, inevitable unraveling of everything the characters thought they knew. There is beauty in that. In the way desire is not spoken but felt, in the way betrayal is not a single act but a gradual shift, like the tide pulling the sand beneath one’s feet. The final moments are haunting; like the island itself, they refuse to let go.
Jermyn Street Theatre’s production is one that leaves a mark, an impression that settles in the mind long after the lights have gone down. It is a play about control, over land, over bodies, over fate, and about what happens when that control is lost. Or perhaps, when it is never truly there to begin with.
By David Greig
Director: Jessica Lazar
Cast includes: Bruce Langley, Fred Woodley Evans, Kevin McMonagle, Whitney Kehinde
Running time: Approx. 2 hours 30 minutes (with interval)
Until: 15 March 2025
Photo credit: Alex Brenner