The Outrun is something of a phenomenon. The original book is award-winning and critically acclaimed, and has been translated into multiple languages. Later this year a film adaptation produced by and starring powerhouse actor Saoirse Ronan is to be released in the UK (including at the Edinburgh International Film Festival), having already debuted at the Sundance Film Festival. Now to the Edinburgh stage comes another adaptation by award-winning Scottish author Stef Smith, directed by Vicky Featherstone.
The original book was written by Scottish journalist and author Amy Liptrot in 2016. It chronicles her life on Orkney where she has returned to recover after a chaotic period in London. The book combines descriptions of the islands of Orkney with reflections of her alcoholism and drug use in London. A cross between a travelogue, nature writing and recovery memoir, it has proved wildly popular.
The risk with presenting such a story on the stage, is that almost every element is deeply challenging to produce theatrically. Drunks and addicts in recovery aren’t much fun to share a space with for prolonged periods of time, no matter how sympathetic one might feel to their plight. The wilds of Orkney, its landscapes and nature can be described over pages of prose or captured on film – it is much harder to successfully conjure them in a theatre.
Memoirs are by their nature self-centred, which is harder to deliver sympathetically in a theatre than on the page. As the play’s protagonist recovers from her addiction, she becomes increasingly self-absorbed. On-the-nose comments about being awarded a grant to help her write a memoir land heavily and her somewhat smug musings on the importance of her own writing start to grate.
Despite these flaws in the narrative, The Outrun is broadly successful as a piece of theatre. Designer Milla Clarke creates an immersive, eloquent space, with projections suggesting the sensations of both rural and urban life – windswept skies, streetlights, x-rays. The rocks of Orkney erupt from the surface of the stage, either lifting the protagonist up or providing literal stumbling blocks in her life.
Isis Hainsworth puts in a monumental shift as the unnamed protagonist. She is on stage for the play’s entire running time, and starts strongly. We warm to this frustrated young woman – little more than a girl to start with – from a remote island community who wants to experience everything, only to find that everything is just too much. If her performance starts to flag towards the end of the piece, it is perhaps understandable, given the emotional energy with which she invests the character.
The supporting cast of friends and lovers and family is strong as well. A chorus helps fill the stage, their voices providing the soundtrack to wild cliffs and nightclub raves alike, more successfully at some times than others. Scenes and lines repeat on a loop, echoing the destructive cycle of addiction.
There is no denying the popularity of the original book and the impact it has surely had on many readers. That Saoirse Ronan has chosen to star in an adaptation that has already garnered film festival nominations suggests it works cinematically. However, despite the best efforts of everyone involved, it is possible that for all its popularity in other media, The Outrun is not suited for the theatre.
Performed At: Church Hill Theatre
Until Saturday 24 August, various times
Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes, no interval
Based on the book by Amy Liptrot
Royal Lyceum Theatre Company
Director: Vicky Featherstone
Writer & Adaptation: Stef Smith
Composer: Luke Sutherland
Movement Director & Intimacy Coordinator: Vicki Manderson
Designer: Milla Clarke
Cast includes Isis Hainsworth, Paul Brennen, Seamus Dillane, Alison Fitzjohn, Reuben Joseph, Ros Watt
Part of the Edinburgh International Festival