Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Cath Clarke

I Am Kevin review – spine-tingling stories on the sand in atmospheric theatre show

I Am Kevin.
I Am Kevin. Photograph: Wildworks

There are some spine-tingling moments in this film of what looks like a beguiling outdoor production staged last summer by the Cornish theatre group Wildworks (best known for working with Michael Sheen on The Passion in Port Talbot in 2011). The extraordinary atmospheric setting here is the beaches of Carlyon Bay near St Austell at dusk – the golden glow of the gloaming over a dark calm sea. Inside a circle of driftwood on the sand, a singing Greek chorus of Fates give us a content warning: they will be telling stories and “some can be hard to swallow, wild like the sea”.

These stories are framed by a fairytale about a pregnant woman (Hannah McPake) rescued from attackers by the chorus themselves. There’s a lovely piece of prop play as a wooden salad bowl is lifted to the sky to represent the sun, then lowered as her pregnant belly. In return for her safety the woman agrees to be transformed into a tree; years later, as a teenager, her son (Zach Hawkins) sets out on journey to find her.

His journey takes him through the Fates’ stories, mostly recognisable from myth. In the real-life show, the audience walked along the beach to the different sets, watching actors who find emotional connections in the familiar stories. There’s Pandora of Greek myth fame, decades after curiosity got the better of her, tormented to madness by grief and regret (her box is a huge shipping container). Icarus – a tale even little kids can reel off – is appalling to watch, a boy killed in front of his father’s eyes. There is something here about how stories shape us and form the landscape inside our minds. Watching the film, you long to be there in landscape proper, feeling your toes in the sand, listening to the sea.

• I Am Kevin is released on 9 July at the Plaza Cinema, Truro, then tours.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.