O brave new world! Community engagement blossoms beyond DunsPlayFest- Eric Brans-Instone and Jamie Mein
DunsPlayFest (DPF), the annual festival dedicated to new theatrical writing, was established in 2019 by the community theatre group Duns Players. The two organisations have been separate entities since 2023 but they still maintain strong links. Wednesday 23rd of September sees the opening night of Duns Players’ four-night run of Shakespeare’s The Tempest with John McEwen (DPF’s Founder and Director) taking the lead as the magician and disgraced duke Prospero, and with many of the fruits of DunsPlayFest’s success in evidence…
The fairly small Borders town of Duns not only hosts DPF, an annual festival of new writing with around 100 events spread over nine days each May, but has several productions each year performed outside of the festival by both Duns & District Amateur Operatic Society as well as Duns Players. The local secondary school, The Berwickshire High School, also puts on two fully staged musicals each year that rival professional productions in terms of the quality of acting and singing. The Tempest has drawn talent from all of these sources.
The multi-generational cast includes four other DPF trustees in addition to John McEwen, as well as a number of people who have discovered the joy of participation in theatre through previous involvement with DPF. This extends beyond the actors to the technical side of the production which is being run by two young people who have gained experience as part of DPF’s intern scheme. Cerys, who is still at the Berwickshire High School, has taken charge of the lighting design, bringing a wealth of fresh thinking to help realise the enchantment of the play. Whilst James, who was first an intern for DPF in 2023 and is now a professional sound engineer, is in charge of delivering the complex sound production for the show which includes an original soundscape composed by local musician Mike Hardy and sound design by DPF’s technical manager Marc Inglis.
The play has a teenaged chorus of fey spirits, most of whom came into contact with Duns Players via DPF, but teenagers also fill three of the leading roles: that of the sprite Ariel and the young lovers Ferdinand and Miranda. Miranda, Prospero’s daughter, is played by Holly Mabon who earlier this year was Fantine in the High School’s heartbreakingly brilliant production of Les Miserables and has just started at Performing Arts Studio Scotland at Edinburgh College, an institution which began a growing partnership with DPF this year. Jamie Mein, who plays Ferdinand, is DPF’s youngest trustee and in his final year of school, but is a seasoned performer and playwright. DPF intern Hattie Spence, who plays Ariel, a role that entails spellbinding singing, is a talented young singer-songwriter who had her first ever solo gig earlier this year, this being on DPF’s cabaret stage. At the other end of the cast’s age spectrum is the drunken clown Trinculo played by Elaine Farmer, a writer who has recently branched out into playwriting thanks to the support of DPF. Her first ever play, an entertaining retelling of the historical tale of St Aebbe of Coldingham, was performed at this year’s festival in our black box studio theatre and has led to Elaine becoming a member of Duns Players.
Shakespeare is about as far away from new writing as you can get with theatre, but Duns Players’ production of The Tempest is an excellent illustration of the positive power of theatre in building a strong, positive community. This is one of DPF’s core missions alongside that of ‘bringing brand new theatre to the Borders’. We recognise the power of active participation in theatre: building connections between people of all ages who might not otherwise interact, drawing threads through our community, creating support networks and a cohesive local society. The Tempest’s cast includes several highly experienced actors from Duns Players, Duns & District Operatic Society, and Berwickshire High School, but includes a number of people who have not previously acted together, and perhaps otherwise wouldn’t, yet over the rehearsal period the cast have bonded into a close and mutually supportive company.
Duns Players has always been an ambitious theatre group. DPF is very much a product of that ambition with the festival attracting increasing numbers of professional companies alongside its continued support for community theatre. Further evidence of this ambition is Duns Players’ last Shakespeare production, Macbeth in 2019, described by one seasoned reviewer as the best production of ‘The Scottish Play’ she had ever seen. The Tempest, Shakespeare’s last, and perhaps his most interesting play can be interpreted many ways but principally it is about theatre, with many links between the magic performed by Prospero and the magic of stagecraft itself. DPF is committed to preserving, nourishing, and celebrating this magic and all of that will be evident onstage in The Tempest.
Another key thread throughout the play is the trust that Prospero places in his young servant Ariel and also in his daughter and Ferdinand. He oversees and guides, but ultimately puts his trust in youthful ability and good character and is rewarded by seeing his protégés succeed. This again chimes very much with DPF’s own ethos: provide guidance and support, but ultimately put trust in people and watch them grow.
Duns Players’ production of The Tempest will be staged in the Volunteer Hall, Duns which is being transformed into a magical theatre space with raked seating and a licenced bar. Tickets available from Nairn’s in Duns, from https://www.tickettailor.com/events/dunsplayers/2342091 or on the door. It is running for four nights only: Wednesday 23rd-Saturday 26th September.
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