Caged: The True Story of Isabella MacDuff
★★★★☆ Commanding
Hill Street Theatre (Venue 41): Thurs 15 – Sun 25 Aug 2024
Review by Rebecca Mahar
Confined behind bars before her audience, Isabella MacDuff takes to the stage to tell her own story in Caged, written and directed by Colette Swan for Pigeon Cote Productions.
A descendant of the Macduff of Shakespeare fame, Isabella exerted her familial right to crown the King of Scots upon the coronation of Robert the Bruce, and was soon thereafter imprisoned by Edward I for her troubles: suspended in a cross-shaped iron cage at Berwick Castle, from which she speaks to those gathered below.
Eilidh Thomson. Pic: Pigeon Cote Productions.
Eilidh Thomson plays Isabella with sharp tongue and wit, bristling with offence at being called a traitor— as she protests: “how can a body be a traitor to a foreign king?” She rails against the positions women are forced into: pawns in strategic marriage alliances, breeding stock, and always suffering for the actions of men, right back to Eden, questioning why “men [shouldn’t] suffer for Adam being an arse?” when Eve was punished for “tempting” him.
While some context on the historical circumstances of the First War of Scottish Independence is necessary to fully follow Isabella’s story, Swan’s script spends an unnecessarily long time in its first half forcing Isabella to talk about Robert the Bruce and William Wallace with scarcely a mention of herself in an exposition that Thomson pushes through with admirable grit.
energy
Thomson is a powerhouse, commanding the room from her tiny platform, jumping up and down from her seat inside the cage to interact with the imaginary crowd below it, the energy of her physical performance threatening to burst its bars. This kind of energetic commitment is difficult for a solo performer to maintain under the best of circumstances, but on the night of Æ’s visit, Thomson played to a shamefully sparse house. Despite this, her commitment never wavered.
Eilidh Thomson. Pic: Pigeon Cote Productions.
It is in the later part of the story that Thomson, and Swan’s writing, really shine: upon receiving news of Edward I’s death, we are finally treated to Isabella’s real-time reaction to events now unfolding around her, rather than her relating of recent history. Triumph, pride, hope, betrayal; all are packed into the short space between the old English king’s death, and the new one’s decision to transfer Isabella to a friary.
Thomson steps out of the cage as Isabella disappears from the pages of the historical record, and, free of her confines, addresses the audience directly, with no pretence that they are troubadours or travellers listening to her story. When she questions what it means to be Scottish, and exhorts the audience to never give in to foreign rule, it doesn’t take much imagination to feel that she speaks not in the 14th century, but the 21st, and the king she spurns is not an Edward, but a Charles.
Caged is a strong entry into the genre of women-from-history-telling-their-own-stories, and Thomson’s performance more than makes up for any textual missteps. Isabella MacDuff has something to say: stop and listen.
Running time: 45 minutes (no interval)
Hill Street Theatre (Alba), 19 Hill Street EH2 3JP (Venue 41)
Thursday 15 – Sunday 25 August 2024
Daily: 10.05 pm
Details and tickets at: Book here
Facebook: @Pigeon_Cote_Productions
Instagram: @pigeoncoteproductions
ENDS
