Scots Language Awards 2024: Sunset Song

Weel duin tae Sunset Song wha hae bin nominatit in Scots Stage Production o the Year in the Scots Language Awards. Vote now!

The Scots Language Awards are in the Cumnock Toon Ha, Cumnock in pairtnership wi East Ayrshire Cooncil on 14th September at 7pm. Tickets fir the ceremony are available tae buy here: https://eastayrshireleisure.com/events/scots-language-awards/.

We askit Morna Young o Sunset Song thae speirins.

Tell us aboot yersel or yer ootfit.
Synopsis:
Scotland’s most loved literary heroine Chris Guthrie is brought to the stage in this thrilling contemporary adaptation, co-produced by Dundee Rep and the Royal Lyceum.

From harrowing family roots, to stirring love and the awakening of self, Chris’s coming-of-age journey to womanhood is one of enduring strength, persistent survival and joyful renewal. Exploring human resilience and the loss of a way of life, through a scorching female protagonist, Sunset Song has a profoundly lyrical intensity that echoes throughout the years and still resonates today.

This radically reimagined production brings together an award-winning Scottish creative team including writer Morna Young (Lost at Sea, The Stamping Ground), director Finn den Hertog (The Enemy, Square Go) and composer Finn Anderson (Islander, A Mother’s Song) to tell this sweeping story of heart-breaking love, and a land and people in turmoil. With rich Scots language text, dynamic and physically charged staging, and raw and vivid live music, Sunset Song is a celebration of Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s symphonic, astounding and ever-relevant novel.

Writer:
Morna Young is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter from Moray, named ‘Scots Writer o the Year’ at the inaugural Scots Language Awards in 2019. Most recently, she won the Peggy Ramsay/Film 4 Playwriting Bursary (Traverse), and received an SSP@50 Fellowship (Aberdeen Arts Centre).

'Lost at Sea', Morna’s debut full-length play in 2019, won two Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland (CATS), and was a finalist in the Herald’s Culture Awards. She also wrote the CATS winning Runrig musical 'The Stamping Ground' (Eden Court / Raw Material) and the CATS nominated adaptation of 'Sunset Song' that toured in Spring 2024 (Dundee Rep / Lyceum).

Other plays include: 'The Snow Queen' (Lyceum), 'Babs', 'Aye, Elvis', 'The Silver Superheroes', and 'Netting' (A Play, A Pie and A Pint), 'The Buke of the Howlat' (Findhorn Bay Arts), 'Smite' (Jermyn Street Theatre), 'She of the Sea' (Paines Plough), 'B-Roads' (Play Pieces) and 'Never Land' (Eden Court). Digital work released in 2020/21 includes 'A Fairy Tale' (Lyceum), 'A Passing Dance' (Pitlochry Festival Theatre), 'Stella' (Mull Theatre), 'The Twa Chrisses' (Scots Language Centre), and 'Demon Island' (Traverse).

Morna was recipient of the Dr Gavin Wallace Fellowship hosted by Aberdeen City Council (2017), a New Playwrights Award (Playwrights' Studio, Scotland, 2014) and the ‘Tomorrow at Noon’ award for female playwrights (Jermyn Street Theatre, 2018). Her international work includes The Traverse’s ‘Scotland-in-Japan’ residency, playwright-in-residence for BATS Theatre in New Zealand for three-months and a Rome residency as part of the Muriel Spark 100 awards.

Morna has also been writing for screen since receiving the BBC Scotland scholarship 2020 including five episodes of BBC Scotland’s 'River City', the first of which received a Debut Writer nomination at the New Voices Awards, 2023.

As a working-class woman and native north-east Scots speaker, Morna is interested in exploring under-represented voices and her work often explore class structures. She has a personal interest in folklore, mythology and fairy-tales, and often draws on these within her writing, as well as themes of grief, absence and loss.

Full info at: www.mornayoung.com

All questions below answered by Morna.

Whit wis it got ye involvit wi the Scots leid?
I didna set oot tae write in Scots, it’s juist the wye I wis brocht up tae spik. Wi ma first play ‘Lost at Sea’, it widna hae made sense tae write it ony ither wye. Hoo could ye present life in a North East fishin community withoot scrievin in Doric? Fae then, I’ve aft scrieved in Scots, wi maist o ma plays based in the North East; fae ‘Aye, Elvis’ aboot a wifie Elvis impersonater fae Aiberdeen, tae ‘Babs’ aboot a quine fa meets the Baba Yaga. Ither Scots wirk has takken me forder afield, including ‘The Snow Queen’, a Scotland based version o the classic tale, and ‘The Water Clan’ for BATS Theatre, New Zealand.

Why dae ye feel it is important tae use Scots in everyday life?
I try tae uise Scots tae explore current themes in a progressive wye an it’s affa important tae me tae attract mare quines tae dee the same.

Ma Scots is maste aft a colloquial version o Doric an it isna written tae exist on paper alane. When scrievin fir stage, we anely hae oor character’s wirds – their voices – tae tell the story. If ma character spiks Scots, then it’s because it’s rooted in their identity, and I like tae play wi variations in hoo each character spiks. I’m prood tae wirk in ma ain tongue an I’m ay gled tae see the response fae audiences fan they recognise thaimsels on stage.

I wis in schuil when I first read ‘Sunset Song’ and I mind bein blawn awa by the passage aboot twa Chrisses – English Chris and Scottish Chris – feelin ma ain life mirrored back. I couldna believe that a mannie fae sae lang ago could capture that feeling. Reading Scots in a buke, hearing it on stage or beyond, will ay help wi representation – it maks ye feel seen. I feel prood tae be a wee pairt o that, and ay hope that my wirk will inspire ither North Easters tae scrieve in their ain tongue.

Dae ye hae a favourite Scots phrase or saying?
It seems affa appropriate tae tell ye a favourite fae 'Sunset Song':

“What's the English for sotter, or greip, or smore, or pleiter, gloaming or glunching or well-kenspeckled? And if you said gloaming was sunset you'd fair be a liar…”

I hid a fair guid blether wi ma pal Shane Strachan aboot Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s uise o the wird “kenspeckled” insteid of “kenspeckled” here!

Is there a Scots speaker who inspires you?
Ma Auntie Stella haes a turn o phrase like nae ither. She can mak me laugh and greet in a hertbeat, and she’s inspired an affa lot o ma wirk. I juist adore her.

Do you hear Scots spoken regularly in your local area? Have you noticed any changes over time?

Ony particlar career heighlichts
It took me eicht years fae conception tae bring ma play ‘Lost at Sea’ tae the stage. Ma ain faither wis lost at sea when I wis a bairn an I wantit tae pey tribute tae the mony fishermen that hae lost their lives. Tourin this wark aroon Scotland in 2019 is ma highlight, an I wis fair chuft that the production wis recognised at the Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland an at the Herald Culture Awards. Mareower, I wis blawn awa by the response fae fishin fowk.

Getting tae adapt ‘Sunset Song’ is anither highlicht, because it’s a buke that’s been wi me ma hale life. I’ve turnit tae ma aul copy time an time again ower the years, ay thinkin aboot ma different sides, the English and the Scots. It’s a buke that’s helped me understaun ma complex feelings aboot identity, an it wis an honour tae bring ma version o the story tae the stage.

Wha’s yer plans fir the days aheid?
Scrievin a new play and for River City, developing some new ideas for stage and screen, and spending time wi ma new wee dug. He’s a cracker.

The Scots Language Awards are in the Cumnock Toon Ha, Cumnock on 14th September at 7pm. Tickets are available to buy here: https://eastayrshireleisure.com/events/scots-language-awards/ There wull be some grand entertainmint oan the nicht tae, includin a recital fae Billy Kay, Susie Briggs, alang wi musical performances fae Claire Hastings an Sèan Gray.

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