“Wha am eh? If no anither Dundee lassie stuck to her hametoon city.
“Wha am eh? If no anither former arts student wae dreams bigger than talent.
“Wha am eh? If no anither girl fae a workin’ class backgroon’ rinnin’ roon forcing her intelligence oan strangers tae prove she’s mair than a postcode, but who needs that postcode tae fund hur life in anither ane.
“See when it comes doon tae it, eh see the wiy the airts is these days, and workin ‘ class is just another box tae tick tae mak them feel like they’re dain somethin’, when in reality it doesnae work that way….”
Story of a working-class woman
Ane City is a punchy, funny show written and performed by Dundonian Taylor Dyson, 27, which tells the story of a working-class woman who left Dundee to study and is now coming home.
A Dundonian spoken word piece about identity@elfiepicket pic.twitter.com/umAhs64xS8
— BBC The Social (@bbcthesocial) September 28, 2022
But as she returns, she finds mass-gentrification of her home city changing everything she knew, and all her friends are moving on.
‘Contemporary reflection of Dundee’
In an interview with The Courier, Taylor, who grew up in Douglas, explained that the show is very much a contemporary reflection of Dundee.
The play explores womanhood, social-class and the barriers young women face.
In 2020, Dundee was ranked the worst place in Scotland to grow up as a girl – the same year it was also named ‘Scotland’s coolest city.
But there’s a lot of universal themes such as home, family and growing up, presented in a way that she hopes is fun and exciting.
“At the time I wrote Ane City – the first thing I ever wrote – I was living in Glasgow and had the experience of going to uni and it not working out,” she said.
“When I came home things were really changing in Dundee.
“It was not feeling like home used to feel.
“But also because you are getting older and your friends have moved on and you are moving on and things just don’t feel the same anymore.”
Perception of ‘two Dundees’
Taylor was very aware of the “two cities” feel of Dundee.
At a time when the V&A was being built and the cultural renaissance of the city was being portrayed as its future, this felt at odds with her working class experiences of growing up in Douglas and the “very Dundonian” family she still has there.
To complicate her relationship with the city further, she had the “weird experience” whereby a scholarship had taken her to Dundee High School and at university, she was conscious of being around people who “had no idea what it’s like living in a poor background”.
After dropping out of university, Taylor met her partner Calum Kelly, 29, on a theatre course at Dundee College.
Originally from Skye, he too had dropped out of university – in his case from Napier where he was studying mechanical engineering – and had turned to the arts.
Calum went into acting at Dundee College in 2014, did his BA through the University of Sunderland while studying in Glasgow and then did his masters in playwriting.
Dolly Parton came along in person to our last show. 😲 😱 😲
Just kidding – that's just the team standing with a life size Dolly Parton cutout.
So sad that our tour is over but so happy we got to share our project with so many lovely folk across Tayside and East Renfrewshire pic.twitter.com/bAAmKkXEkt
— Elfie Picket Theatre (@ElfiePicket) October 15, 2022
The first show they did together was at the Prague Fringe.
They had to come up with a name and Taylor ended up calling what is now their Dundee-based theatre company Elfie Picket which means ‘stolen by fairies’ in Scots.
Universal appeal of Ane City
Ane City was the winner of the Assembly Roxy Theatre (ART) Award in 2019. It’s also been featured on BBC Loop and BBC Scotland’s The Social.
They have performed the show to acclaim in long Edinburgh Festival Fringe runs, as well as Prague.
With further runs of the show scuppered by Covid-19 lockdowns in 2020, then moving on to other creations, Taylor is delighted to finally be putting on the one night show at the Rep, which sees Calum play guitar.
She said “To be performing my own show, that I have written, at Dundee Rep- the theatre I used to go to as a teenager and sit there in awe of the work, is a dream come true.
“Getting the chance to perform a show that is all about Dundee, in Dundee has genuinely been the dream since I first wrote this show, and to do that at The Rep, is just so exciting!”
Empowered by Dundee stories
Taylor said the play is working class and Dundonian, but it’s far from a nostalgic timepiece, nor is it naval-gazing.
With a huge message being the additional challenges often faced by those from a working class background – especially representation in the arts – they were pleased to discover its themes have universal appeal.
“I hope people coming to the show have a fun time and find it funny, but hope they feel slightly empowered to see Dundonian stories on the stage from a young modern perspective,” she added.
The play is at Dundee Rep for one-night only, on Thursday April 13, with tickets starting at £10.
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