The mystery of the Flannan Islands lighthouse has intrigued people since 1900. There has been an official investigation, rumours, and much speculation. Indeed, it has even inspired a classic era Doctor Who story: Horror of Fang Rock. Not much is known of the truth of what happened to the three men staffing the lighthouse at the remote Outer Hebridean island of Eilean Mòr, other than that they disappeared leaving no trace and no bodies have ever been found.
This latest speculative story, running at the Park Theatre in north London, takes a distinctly Scottish approach to its storytelling, utilising long descriptive monologues and folk music a cappella sea shanties to mark the passage of the days.
The use of only three actors: Ewan Stewart; Graeme Dalling, and; Jamie Quinn, who also play two roles each, adds to the atmosphere of isolation and claustrophobia, which is in turn assisted by the intimacy of the 200-seater auditorium of the Park Theatre. A superb soundscape, and clever use of lighting all suggest a landscape shrouded in fog, where your mind can, and does begin to play tricks on you. Add in sleep-deprivation, alcohol dependency and a terrible diet, and you have all the ingredients to create an air of suspicion, doubt and terror, before you add in a story about the island’s first lighthouse keeper and the misfortunes which befell his family.
The setting in 1900 allows writer Paul Morrisey to play with ideas around empire and colonisation, changing times, and the enduring lure of folktales in remote communities. The title of the play comes from the nickname given to lighthouse keepers: as ‘Wickies’ their job is to make sure that the light never goes out.
However, listing wickies alongside selkies, sirens and kelpies would suggest that these men have something of legend about them: an otherworldliness borne of being not entirely of the land, but also not entirely of the sea. These men respect the sea. They respect its power to sustain life, but also to take it. They also recognise that the world is changing around them. The Flannan Isles Light house is relatively new, construction on it having only been completed in 1899. Its mission is to guide boats carrying merchants’ goods safely past the dangerous rocky outcrops lining the edge of the northern Atlantic, but in sending men here for weeks on end to ensure that commerce will continue, the men soon discover that they struggle not only with the elements, but with themselves.
Essentially a piece of isolation horror, in the manner of Picnic at Hanging Rock or Solaris, both of which share similar themes of inhospitable environments, and man’s stubborn refusal to understand that not every aspect of nature can be tamed and bent to his will, Wickies ratches up the tension throughout its two-hour running time as we watch the men descend into petty bickering and bullying as definite fact meets speculative fiction. Using the probably imagined story of that first lighthouse keeper, Morrisey suggests a ghost tale and an unsettling presence that can’t be placated. In the end, it’s still not clear what may have happened to the men, and the suggestion offered is far more mundane than supernatural.
Whilst this is an enthralling tale, with lots to chew on both during the performance, and in discussion afterwards, the fear factor was less developed than we perhaps might have wished it to be. The jump scares were few and far between, and there could also have been a greater sense of dread created generally. But for an alternative festive season entertainment, that’s pleasingly different from the usual glitter and tinsel, this is a diverting piece of theatre, albeit one that asks more questions than it answers.
