Review – Breaker

Anyone who heard the recent performance of Peer Gynt perfomed by the BBCSO featuring Irish actors playing the dramatic parts will have noticed (or ‘can imagine’ for you blushing culture-absconders) how perfectly appropriate the brogue fitted with the folksy mythical themes and characters. The new play “Breaker” was written by Icelander Salka Gudmundsdotti but has found broad English-language appeal through the translation and geographical transposition of Scottish director Graeme Maley, and the dour, grim Scottish accent is neatly consonant with the bleak and mystical Icelandic tale.

The story is about two young people brought together by a common ancestry. A young woman, Sunna (Hannah Donaldson) lives on a remote island that was the location of a recent bizarre tragedy that brought the small and isolated community to its knees. Daniel (Finn den Hertog) has arrived on the island following the threads of his grandmother’s childhood stories, his since-deceased grandmother being a former resident. The young man and woman have a brief but emotional encounter where each unfolds the darkest parcel of their different but connected histories.

The young actors seem to really invest in the work which is rallying, and Hertog capably handles the material with a fast-paced delivery that seems very genuine. Donaldson was a bit of a belter on opening night, though I’m sure some tender directorial input will smooth this out for later performances. She also seems a bit lost on the almost-bare stage and her shouted delivery upset the plausibility of her performance somewhat. First-night technicalities, merely, we hope. It’s a bleak and mystical exploration of an isolated community brought low, emotionally alienated by an immense grief and wary of all who seek to land its shores.