Razor's Edge:
The Avant-Garde Theatre of the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands in the 1960s
by Theodore Foy
(Pitter & Polepandy, Montrose, 1972)
Bloody Parchment, by Moz Robinson
A corruscating 3-hour monologue with the character of Miz, a lesbian struggling to come to terms with her sexuality and her role in the society of tourist-oriented Peel in the early-60s, speaking her entire role from within a huge upended flour bin in a disused bakery. Two detuned violins and a saw maintain a haunting accompaniment, reaching terrifying crescendos at poignant points in the drama. Various significant characters from Miz's past appear and move around the set. The ending where MsMe, a representation of her potential and true destiny, fights its/her way into the bin and wrestles with Miz, is truly unparalleled and was called "a concrete mysticism of the tawdry travesty of The Isle of Man" by the Douglas Examiner.
Hex Endowments In The Sky by Jorge Robledo
First of the "Potato Slavery" trilogy by Guernsey's "enfant terrible". Juilian, a hermaphrodite and starving artist, is estranged from his potato-farming family, and lives in a cave by a beautiful and unfrequented beach, where he makes his own home, and dedicates his life to the creation of his "ulterior murals", vast canvases covered with potato-prints which he drapes over the cave walls. Winter comes, and Juilian is starving to death. His cave collapses, the sea rushes in. He is driven to a far recess within the cliff, forever trapped and cut off from the world above him. An hallucinatory last scene is unforgettable, in which he is visited by a trio of beautiful mermaids who offer him unconditional love and comfort in return for his repudiation of human society. He accepts and is led off by the sea-creatures to a demi-paradise. At the end we see his broken body buried amongst rocks and sea water. The ravings of a starving madman, or a vision of transcendental beatitude? A question complicated by the fact that Robledo deliberately starved himself during the creation of this piece.
