I’m Emer, playwright, director, and cultural worker, from down south, I’ve been working up here over the past 4 years, on issues around fishing and energy transition.
My work aims to raise up and celebrate community voices in struggles for justice. About a year ago, I was chatting with co-worker Scott Herrett, Torry resident and Just Transition organiser for Friends of the Earth Scotland. We’re Both inspired by the 1970s play The Cheviot, The Stag, The Black Black Oil, the legendary piece of Scottish theatre tells the story of the exploitation of Scottish lands, waters and people over the centuries. The similarity in what has been happening in Torry is, of course, not lost on anyone.
The list of those making a play for Torry goes on, so, we thought, could we make A Play For Torry?
A Play for Torry:
So here we are, built from the voices, stories, and experiences of the Torry people, through interviews, music, and poetry, A Play for Torry, is a community-based theatre project that celebrates the land and the resistance of Torry, past and present and future. We’ll explore Torry’s history and current battles: from fishing and oil to RAAC and the park and it’ll be fun.
This is your story – and we invite you to be part of telling it.
What have we been up to?
In the spring, we ran a writing and poetry workshop at Tullos – collectively producing poetry and writing. Some quite astounding poetic work came from this- and we made a zine ‘artefact’ of the poetry from this workshop. (available to download on the link here https://issuu.com/torryartefact/docs/ )
Who are we anyway?
Emer Morris – Writer/ Director and Co Producer. I’ve been driving the project forward with Scott Herrett, Torry resident project Exec Producer. The brilliant Nathaniel Campbell-Scott-Howells, FoSFP campaigner and Park outdoor Classroom co-ordinator is our Community Producer and the extremely talented Aberdeen local writers, Mae Diansagu and Shane Strachan are the script co-writers. We’ve also got Aberdeen Legend Jackill (Jack Hughes) rapper and producer to help create original music.
What are you up to then?
We won some Creative Scotland funding to develop a draft script of the play. So, starting in January, we’ll run a series of workshops—open to both young people and adults—alongside one-on-one interviews. Once we’ve got a draft, we will do a script reading for feedback from more folks in Torry.
If you’d like to be part of A Play for Torry as a storyteller, a performer, or in another creative role—get in touch [email protected] or come see us in Grey Hope Hub.
As Helena says, Hauns affa torry.
Pictures credits:
Picture: Helena Torry, copyright Renee Slater, Torry.
Poemfromworkshop: Young contribution from Poetry Writing Workshop 2024.
Breakfastandpoetry: Young writers and Emer Morris: Poetry Writing Workshop 2024.
Whatsthestorytorry : Image: collage created collectively by people in Torry, at Grey Hope Hub.
