Border Control by A Moment’s Peace was not a traditional piece of theatre in the sense I was expecting. Three playwrights had submitted new work around the themes of borders and heritage and these had been developed by directors and actors throughout the day before being presented to us.
Each scene involved a border. Some divided. In ‘Golden Slumbers’ two characters prepared to be smuggled across a literal border and in ‘Compost’, the border was the generational gap between a mother and daughter, one brought up in Hong Kong and the other in Glasgow. ‘The Other Side’ involved the crossing of the ultimate border, the border between life and death.
No-frills theatre
As the actors read through the scenes, it was amazing how little I noticed the complete lack of many of the details normally seen at the theatre. Like a novel or a radio-play, my imagination filled in the gaps left by costumes, scenery and props and I was completely gripped by the pieces. There was a lot of comedy in the back-and-forth between the characters in ‘Compost’ and in ‘The Other Side’. The portrayal of St. Peter as a slightly officious immigration officer assessing a recently deceased and bewildered Falkirk fan had me convulsing with laughter.
Must a border always divide?
After an interval, a discussion began about the issues raised. The regime involved in ‘Golden Slumbers’ had deliberately been left vague but it was certainly a totalitarian one; dissent was not acceptable and those who disagreed with the government were forced to flee. What had previously been one country had become five and the characters speculated as to where this division would stop. How many people can there be in a country where everyone must agree about everything? A million? A thousand? One?
What is a border but an attempt to keep people out? And what can we so scared of anyway that we have to construct a line between ourselves and our neighbours? But if a border could be an opportunity to create a new society from scratch, could it unite instead of divide?
To an audience preparing to vote in an independence referendum, these themes seemed to strike a particular chord. Strange as it might seem, I hadn’t thought about independence in these terms before. We didn’t leave with an answer to these questions of course but it was really interesting to have seen them asked in this way. I left for home that evening with my head spinning with new questions and thoughts.
