Written by Isla Cowan

Directed by Sam Hardie

What’s in a home?

Bricks and stone, an investment, or something more – a lair, a nest, a future? For others, it’s decay: a grim reminder of the life that once lived within, and no matter how far you run from it, the “milk, marrow and mortar” still saturate the ground we all share as it is described in this newly written piece of Scottish theatre.

The canny gumption of Isla Cowan demonstrates a magnificently determined playwright who will not allow anything to stand in their way. In a shrewdly written three-hander, which builds in the small cracks it lays out before shattering down the walls that surround, To the Bone closes out the Pitlochry Summer season as a strikingly appropriate production to sit alongside Peter Arnott’s Group Portrait in a Summer Landscape.

And though both take place within the highlands of Scotland, the writing and character attitudes and reverence of the landscape and heritage take different stances to weave unique stories and experiences. Shifting from the auditorium with a large and luxurious middle-class home set, performed in the studio, To the Bone is designed with an abstract of farmhouse living, water-damaged walls, and a slathering of egg-yolk paint.

In this unassuming home in the Perthshire countryside, Alf lives a solitary life growing vegetables and trading with farmers. Until his idyllic lifestyle is fractured by the arrival of Beth, his ex-partner, who wants to bring a close to the chapter she and Alf shared: the now damp and fusty farmhouse is the last link to their life and the grief of what was lost.

A familiar face to the Pitlochry production, To the Bone may well be Rachael McAllister’s sharpest and most intricate performance with the venue. Throughout the sixty-minute drama, McAllister captures Beth in an authentic manner – from a determined woman and co-owner of the home, who gradually breaks down her own walls and exposes an inescapable trauma that leads to an intensive finale.

A finale which Joseph Tweedale’s Alf does everything in their power to steer away from – attempting (and failing) to maintain control of the house and the two women in his life. That’s right, Beth and Alf aren’t alone in this scenario. Along with Tweedale, who brings humour and a scattered emotional turmoil to the mix, Trudy Ward’s Vee heightens the melodrama with their role – an initially quiet one that gradually builds into an enjoyable, and easy-going role for the audience to sympathise with through the eyes of Vee who can’t see fault in this paradise of open-air and fertile land. That is of course, until the reality of it all sets in – a delightfully smart twist from Cowan in the parallels between two otherwise different characters.

Really, the drawback comes in the tonal shift hurtling back and forth in the latter moments of the show, as characters shift from a more natural state of conversation into extensive monologuing which detaches them from Sam Hardie’s otherwise steady flow of the production. The resulting dip of momentum as humour is subverted for a necessary but melodramatic pathos, leads to some of the character revelations and sinister elements having a less nuanced, more whiplashing turnabout. Then again, monsters don’t always present themselves with warnings or announcements.

Savvy, To the Bone, is a solid (partial) closer for the Pitlochry summer season ahead of their final Studio shows and returning festive performances of Sunshine on Leith. Cowan continues to stride forth as a reliable and intellectual playwright in Scotland’s emerging repertoire – hopefully able to spread out more with lengthier runtimes in future to expand on exemplary ideas and concepts.