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Connections are found in surprising places. You can get from Scotland to South Korea, for example, via the pentatonic scale. The same five-note structure lies behind Arirang, the ancient Korean folk song, and Celtic airs such as Auld Lang Syne.
In an international collaboration that grew out of a chance meeting during a previous Edinburgh fringe, Robbie Gordon and Jack Nurse of Scotland’s Wonder Fools and Yoon Junghwan of South Korea’s Theatre San find more points of contact between the two countries.
The story of Tether 인연 recalls one of those continent-hopping time-travelling yarns beloved of Robert Lepage (although the comparisons with the Canadian director end there). Spanning 60 years and three generations, it concerns a Korean missionary (Hyeon-kyu Choi) in inter-war Glasgow who falls for the landlady’s daughter (Molly Bryson) before being compelled to return home.
A generation later, a Scottish nurse (Naomi Stirrat) tends to the wounded on the battlefield of the Korean war, carrying a letter from her heartbroken mother. Then a 1970s Korean student (Mi-soo Kim) visits Scotland and is amazed to find that same landlady’s daughter (Isabella Jarrett) knows all the words to Arirang. The failed promise of the early love story rings across the decades.
The joy of the show is less in its lightly drawn story than in the charm of the performances and the merry exuberance of the staging. The actors speak in their own tongue and the language changes by the line, adding to the heightened theatricality.
Inviting the audience on to the stage for the Gay Gordons and a Strip the Willow, it is a collision between ceilidh and ganggangsullae, a Korean circle dance. The connections are made in the shared love of movement and physical freedom and powered on by the score by Stuart Ramage working with an excellent four-piece live band playing folk instruments from both cultures.
English (US) ·