Fiona Templeton
At the tip of the Ross of Mull, the peninsula of Knockvologan faces in one direction out across the sea of the Minch to the Outer Hebrides, and in the other south to Jura and Scarba. So there I could place myself inside the geography of my work about 17th century Scottish Gaelic oral poet Màiri Nighean Alasdair Ruaidh. Following on a journey across the Hebrides, I made research and translations, learned songs, spoke to locals and walked in all weathers, orienting myself within her multiple exiles, and discovering from the landscape and seascape.
Writing commissioned by New York State Council on the Arts.
Neither Out Nor In
The title refers to the Hebridean story that, not allowed to sing in public as a bard because she was a woman, nor to the children in her care for fear her voice might have dangerous power, neither inside the house nor outside the house, she is said to have stood on the threshold to sing.
Her work was innovative, with an extraordinary ear. She was buried face down, a burial usually given to witches.
Neither Out nor In is part of a diptych of works about female oral culture in remote areas of Japan and Scotland, entitled Songs Between Worlds.
Fiona Templeton creates poetry that is for performance or installation, or plays and installations that are poetry. She was co-founder of The Theatre of Mistakes in London in the 70s, and is currently Artistic Director of The Relationship in New York.Her work includes You-The City (an intimate citywide play for an audience of one) in the 80s, Cells of Release, an installation in collaboration with Amnesty International in an abandoned prison in the 90s, and The Medead, a 6-part multivoice epic of Medea, this century.