Breaker

• Miles Fielder
• 30 August 2013

This article is from 2013.

Spellbinding dark drama

This intense and emotionally charged two-hander really packs a dramatic punch. Set on a remote Scottish island, it turns on an encounter between a bewildered young man named Daniel (who has made the long journey from the mainland looking for answers to the strange stories about island life told to him by his recently-deceased grandmother) and a bereaved local schoolteacher named Sunna, who is attempting to come to terms with the traumatic multiple suicides of several of the isle’s children.

During the course of their random meeting one dark night, Daniel and Sunna rant and rave at one another about the causes of the children’s deaths. Daniel wants a socio-economic answer while Sunna needs there to be no simple explanation; neither is prepared to believe the deaths were related to a supernatural myth of the island.

Written by Icelandic playwright Salka Gudmundsdóttir and translated and directed by Scot Graeme Maley, Breaker is spellbinding theatre that asks some interesting questions about self-belief. As Daniel and Sunna, Iain Robertson and Isabelle Joss are terrific, and their verbal sparring is absolutely electrifying.

Underbelly, Cowgate, 0844 545 8252, until 25 Aug, 2pm, £12–£13 (£11–£12).