Bairn's Bothers by Raymond Cousse

"Set in a country village in the 1950's. The story of a wee boy discovering how his world works: ... learning that grown-ups sometimes do very strange things ... finding out that you can't trust anything they say... and does anyone ever tell you the truth? Hardly ever! But if you keep asking, they'll have to tell you something... even if they have to make it up!"

These are the programme notes accompanying the performance by the Mull Theatre Company of Bairn's Bothers by Raymond Cousse. This was staged in Coll at the village hall on Tuesday, 20th June, 2000.

In front of a very small audience, the company had transformed the hall by the use of lights into the small village where the bairn lived. Because they were using floor space rather than the stage, it was a very intimate experience which, although initially creating too much awareness of the sweat pouring down the body of an adult, rather tubby actor who was portraying a child, soon became completely absorbing. Alasdair Milne, as the bairn, created the illusion of an innocent child living in a corrupt world with consummate skill. On stage for the whole of the evening, he took us into the world of the child who had total faith in the world surrounding him until the death of his best friend Marcel, when in a final, shattering moment, his innocence is destroyed when he realises that he cannot trust in the truth of anything, that the world of adults is a web of lies and deceit.

The build up of tension and suspense is masterly until this final climactic moment and the audience suspended all disbelief and empathised with the bairn throughout.

The play was translated from the French but was performed with a broad Scots accent, so French inclusions, such as the name Marcel (the friend) and references to Bastille day, were a little incongruous, but this was a minor fault in a really enjoyable evening. The intimacy created by the smallness of the space was a unique experience for a performance of such emotional intensity, probably not ever achieved in a conventional theatre.

I hope very much that the Mull Theatre Company will return and offer us more entertainment of this high standard.

A. T.