Artist’s Lunan Bay performance will reach for the moon

It is the crescent-shaped beach on the dramatic Angus coastline best known for the ruined remains of a red sandstone castle said to have been built to help repel Viking invasions.
Lunan Bay in AngusLunan Bay in Angus
Lunan Bay in Angus

Now its dunes and shoreline are being lined up to play host to a series of spectacular night-time performances which aim to take audiences back to the very birth of civilisation and explore the impact climate change is having on the modern-day landscape.

The “environmental art production” is being created for Lunan Bay by Angus Farquhar, the driving force behind previous spectacles which have transformed the Old Man of Storr on Skye, Glen Lyon in Perthshire, Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh and the former St Peter’s Seminary in Argyll.

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Over Lunan, an all-ticket event planned to be staged in the spring of next year, is expected to feature a mix of live theatre, choral singing and sound and light effects.

It will explore the flood mythologies and ancient stories around the origins of Mesopotamia, the so-called “cradle of civilisation”, around 4000 BC in present day Syria and Iraq.

Originally due to be staged this September as part of the year-long programme of events marking the 700th anniversary of the Declaration of Arbroath, it has been postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

However an initial phase of the project will see the creation of an audio play and a soundtrack over the next few months.

Farquhar, who closed down his long-running arts company NVA in 2018 after it lost its funding from Creative Scotland, has joined forces with the Arbroath-based arts centre and retreat Hospitalfield to develop Over Lunan. His new project is being backed by both Creative Scotland and whisky distiller William Grant’s foundation.

Farquhar, who has recently created a new arts company, Aproxima, said: “When NVA closed after 25 years, the first person to get in touch with me was Hospitalfield director Lucy Byatt. She asked if I’d be interested in making a piece of work in Arbroath.

“I didn’t know the Angus area well and was surprised to discover the wild and beautiful coastline. There are deeply indented sea cliffs, high dunes and stunning beaches.

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“Many people stay on the train from Dundee to Aberdeen and miss the hidden gems along the way, but there is a sizeable community who are drawn back year after year.

“Myself and lead designer James Johnson scoped a number of stunning coastal locations, but were drawn to Lunan Bay, a perfect crescent running for nearly two miles; a long indentation from the North Sea, book-ended at its extremities by great pyramidal columns of volcanic rock.

“The wind-sculpted beach is one of the largest sand masses in Scotland; during high and low tides the distance to the water’s edge can vary from 10 to 250 metres. Like all of the Angus coastline, it is constantly on the move, now affected by global warming and the rise of sea levels.

“To the north lie deeply formed sand dunes, their height testament to the actions of more ancient seas.”

Farquhar said his exploration of the lunar roots of the beach’s name had led him to discover stories about a Mesopotamian moon god, named Sin or Nanna.

Farquhar added: “I became fascinated by the story of the Apkallu, featured in myths found on inscribed clay tablets, which describe half-human, half-fish hybrids who walked out of the sea for seven days to bring knowledge to people who lived there. The birth of architecture, astrology, astronomy, law, agriculture, in other words the basis for civil existence, were all said 
to stem from these encounters.

“I wondered what the Apkallu might say now if they came back for one last time.”

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