Mull Theatre celebrates the darkness of ‘Our Carnal Hearts’

The singing of a ‘Celtic coven’ will be heard round the halls of Mull and UK-wide in April and May as An Tobar tours its production Our Carnal Hearts: ‘a brilliant, grubby, morally questionable celebration of our darkest impulses to compete and conquer’.

Written by award-winning theatre maker Rachel Mars, with original music by Louise Mothersole, this choral piece is ‘a gleeful, thrilling and murky celebration of envy, competitive spirits and all the times we screw each other over’.

This new Hebridean co-production with An Tobar and Mull Theatre reimagines this contemporary classic through a Gaelic lens, rooting a primal ritual to all consuming envy in the aesthetic traditions of ancient Britain.

Directed by “the artistic director of An Tobar and Mull Theatre and Arch 468 Rebecca Atkinson-Lord, it’s a show ‘fi lled with women unashamed to show us their ugly bits’.

A spokesperson for the company said: ‘The show features a Celtic coven singing hymns to the powerful urge to win and dancing round the fi res of jealousy that rage when we don’t; four glorious singers join in a raucous cacophony of surround sound, calling on the gods for advantage and crowing over the bodies of the losers.

‘Audiences can expect a joyous confession of everyone we’ve ever wanted to be and everything we’ve ever wanted to own. Our Carnal Hearts is a place to whoop at our own fragility and delight against our better nature, a toast to our competitive spirits and a rumbling dance for the ugly gutter-tramping parts of our souls.

‘It is a show that seeks to prove envy makes us better.’

Director Rebecca Atkin-

son-Lord added: ‘Rachel Mars is one of this generation’s most innovative theatre writers. ‘Her work captivates the audience with cleverness and delight before leaping out from behind a curtain to make us squeal in surprise. ‘She has a knack for capturing the essence of our complicated modern a gleeful, thrilling existence and distilling it into and murky stories that feel infused with celebration of ancient knowledge that will envy, competitive spirits and all the resonate for years to come. ‘Having worked with Rachel for more than a decade, times we screw I’m honoured to be granted each other over the opportunity to direct this fi rst major revival of her work.’ Our Carnal Hearts is being staged at Byre Theatre, April 28; Dunoon Burgh Hall, April 29; Rosehill Theatre, April 30; before heading to Oxford, Reading, Hampshire, Cardiff and Oldham.