Tailor of Inverness

 

The IETM, the European body which supports performance across the continent, has its annual meeting in Glasgow this month. The Tailor of Inverness is one of a number of works coming together under the theme of 'voices' as part of the IETM's artistic showcase, and it could hardly be a better fit. As a one man play it is very much the work of a distinctive voice, that of writer, performer and protagonist Matthew Zajac, but it's also about identity, the need to find it, to disguise it and to escape it, and about what defines us as Scots and Europeans.

The play focuses on the story of Matthew's father, Mateusz Zajac, a Polish immigrant and the tailor of the title. Like so many of his generation, Mateusz's life is changed forever by the atrocities of the Second World War and its aftermath. We follow him back and forth across Europe, through Poland, Uzbekistan, Egypt, Italy and Tehran, as he is forced to abandon his family, as he fights in the Polish, Nazi, Soviet and British armies, as he watches friends die, and as he at last finds wealth and happiness as a tailor in Inverness. And it's interesting that Mateusz begins with this last story. We discover that there is much about his history and identity that he is reluctant to disclose, and the recurring motif of a hunter circling and closing in on a fox comes to represent Matthew's own journey as an artist and as a son to understand the tragedy, guilt and inner conflict which defines his father, and which to some extent defines Europe.

Naturally, Mateusz's fractured account can be difficult to follow, particularly as Matthew's research brings the veracity of certain elements under suspicion. But Zajac's remarkable abilities as a performer and the steadiness of Ben Harrison's direction keep the themes and the plot neatly integrated throughout, despite the frenetic pace of the seventy-five minute running time. Each scene is supported by the simple versatility of Gavin Marwick's solitary violin, by Dogstar's careful application of light, sound and projected imagery, and by the ingenious use of the shop's contents. A headless manikin, an empty dress, and a wall of empty gowns form an ethereal backdrop, reminiscent of the piles of hair or empty shoes at Auschwitz, and of the silence of the people Mateusz loses or who he chooses to leave behind. Though the finale lost me slightly with Matthew's detailed 'Who Do You Think You Are?' genealogy episode, this is still a spectacular performance, like watching a high wire performer or an acrobat, a master of a craft.