There will be another chance to see ‘The Storm Watchers’ film during this year’s St Magnus International Festival (21st – 29th June) at The Ship of Fools Gallery in Kirkwall.

The play ‘The Storm Watchers’ was originally written as a short piece to be part of a pageant in the late Sixties in Stromness.  The work was later performed in its own right with some additions. 

A powerful and poetic piece, the drama presents the lives, anxieties, regrets, fears and memories of women as they deal with the waiting and the aftermath of a storm with all their men at sea. 

Filmed in lockdown in Orkney this project involved technology, remote rehearsal, mobile phone cameras and much more besides.  In this year of Mackay Brown’s 100th birthday, it brings to life one of his early but also most powerful pieces of theatre.

The widely-acclaimed film, directed by Gerda Stevenson and featuring a cast of local actors, will be showing continuously in the upstairs gallery

The Gallery will also be adding some new work  from award-winning artist and writer Samantha Clark to its ongoing summer show. The pieces on show feature the Birsay-based artist’s intricate depictions of water and will join works by Lesley Mackay, Jade Stout, Maiwenn Beadle and a host of other local and Orkney-inspired artists.

The Ship of Fools is at 21 Bridge Street in Kirkwall and is open daily during the Festival from 10am to 4pm.

The St Magnus International Festival runs from 21st to 29th June 2024.