Islander: A New Musical Tickets

Winner of Best New Musical at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Islander tells a modern myth featuring two actors who use live mixing and looping technology to create a sonic landscape as dramatic as the Scottish coastline. Eilidh is the only child on Kinnan Island, where most of the dwindling population has moved to the “Big Land.” The government has proposed to resettle the rest, and the town must vote soon on whether or not to accept the offer. But the day after a baby whale beaches itself, Eilidh discovers a young girl named Arran along the shore, who seems straight out of Scottish folklore. As the two form a friendship, Islander takes audiences on a magical journey to transcend loss, recover hope, and find community.

“Islander” merges sophisticated recording/sound technology with human vocals and cascading emotions. The result is an exquisite rendering of the ocean’s ever-awesome powers and profound fragility, and its indelible impact on two young women poised on its brink, looking toward a wider world they look to with both hope and fear.

• The Chicago Sun Times