Hold Fast Theatre & Performing Arts

The world premiere of Hold Fast will be a tour of rural Scottish village halls and community spaces in Strathspey this September.

The show is a wild, tender celebration of our enduring
relationships with the landscape and each other. Developed specifically for village halls by
Herald Angel Award winner artist Ellie Dubois (No Show; Nosedive) and composer Sarah
Hayes (Admiral Fallow), Hold Fast is a spellbinding family show exploring our communities
and the water running through it.
Community is at the heart of Hold Fast, which will visit locations 30 miles apart from each
other. The idea is to bring contemporary theatre to audiences who would usually have to
travel great distances in order to see it. Hold Fast is an ode to the shared celebration within
communities in village settings.
Hold Fast begins by seeing how two art forms, contemporary circus and innovative folk music,
are entwined. The dynamic, lyrical show is inspired by ideas about women and the sea,
folklore and living rurally. The show comprises devisers Nikki Rummer (Knot, Nikkie & JD),
Arielle Lauzon (Exploded Circus, Mimbre), Joana Dias (a regular collaborator with Upswing,
the ENO, Scarabeus, Certain Blacks, Greenwich+Docklands International Festival) and Freya
Stokka (Lifted, Mimbre). They will be joined by musicians Anna Massie (Blazin’ Fiddles), Laura
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Jane Wilkie (Kinnaris Quintet), Jenn Butterworth (Musician of the Year 2019 Scots Trad Music
Awards) and Rachel Newton (The Furrow Collective).
Ellie Dubois, creator and director, comments, Sarah and I first met over five years ago now to
talk about my idea to create a circus show made for village halls using contemporary folk
music. While it has taken us a long time to get here I am so happy that we have taken our
time to reach the point we are now at. I have been making work for 10 years and this is the
first time that a full tour of something that I have made will be shown in the place where I live.
That feels like a really important milestone to me and the start of what I hope to be a lifetime
of creating work in and for the rural community that I live in.
Hold Fast will open in September at the Kincraig Community Hall and then visit Newtonmore
Village Hall, Talla Nan Ros Community Hall, Carrbridge Village Hall, Boat of Garten Community
Hall, Osprey Arena, MacDonald Aviemore Resort and Grantown Grammar School.

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