Review: The Outrun

The year of The Outrun at the Edinburgh Festival begins. With the Film Festival hosting the UK premiere of the screen version and a Book Festival event happening later this month, playwright Stef Smith’s adaptation of Amy Liptrot’s memoir has premiered, in a production for the Edinburgh International Festival and the Royal Lyceum Theatre. 

Smith and Liptrot’s styles are well matched, in that Smith delivers a sparse, contemplative take on the book, which is about Liptrot’s journey from an Orkney childhood to a life in London (via university in Edinburgh) in which she makes it her mission to experience ‘everything’, before journeying home to the most solitary corner of Orkney to recover from the fierce, self-destructive alcoholism her youth has brought her. 

Isis Hainsworth is very convincing in the lead role, bringing an appropriate blend of wonder and desperation. The character is credited just as ‘Woman’, although the events and tone of the text are faithful to Liptrot’s interiorised original, achieved through interactions with others including her bipolar farmer father (Paul Brennen) and her concerned boyfriend (Seamus Dillane). Unexpectedly, rehab is where the few dark laughs are, courtesy of Alison Fitzjohn’s fellow attendee.

Milla Clarke and Lizzie Powell’s set and lighting designs switch from the streets of London clubland to a cabin under the Northern Lights, Luke Sutherland’s contemporary electronic score is bolstered by a vocal chorus and Vicky Featherstone’s assured direction of all these elements remains a marker of real quality. It’s a powerful piece of work which deserves a far longer life than just this run.