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YOU DANCE THE SWORDS ALONE

By Michael Begg

Swords made its debut as a rehearsed reading at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh in January 1996.

Further readings of the developed script followed in both Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The full production of You Dance The Swords Alone was premiered at the Edinburgh International Fringe Festival in 1998, where it ran for two weeks at Out Of The Blue. Reviews can be found here.

YOU DANCE THE SWORDS ALONE was commissioned by Cerberus, specifically to be performed by Sean Hay, one of Scotland's most exciting young actors. Michael Begg; 'Sean is one of the few actors anywhere capable of pulling off this show. He has a gift for tempering rage and balancing it against fragility. He takes the show to a place that is both proud and vulnerable.'

"I keep my mouth shut when they call me a brave wee soldier. Sometimes the common good is served best by a well tuned ability to keep the mouth shut. Besides, the sword dance involved no small degree of bravery. Many's a time I saw the seated judges showered with blood, skin and toenails as poor wee feet skidded into the blades and howling kids were led limping from the stage, bloody stumps sticking out the ends of tartan socks. Poor wee lambs didn't want to be there in the first place, most of them. They were only there on account of their mothers. See, life, and the wee metal hammer on the knee again. Dance! Boing! There you go!"

A man walks into a room. He has just returned from burying his wife. You Dance The Swords Alone follows the man through the course of this long night as he confronts his own past and attempts to reconcile his present position with the life he has led up to this time.

Throughout the course of the night he revisits episodes from his life. We see him variously as; the boy champion of the sword dance, the patient on the couch who cannot move his leg until the doctor taps his knee with a hammer, the smitten lover, young husband and devoted father, the chef's apprentice who waits patiently with his head in the oven for his real job to begin, and the conscript with a terrible secret that will have to be revealed before this night is out. (During his active service in an unspecified war he was a member of a firing squad charged with executing cowards and deserters.)

As the memories crowd in on him his reason begins to disintegrate under the fresh weight of loss and a steadily escalating intake of whisky. All the seemingly unrelated elements of his life achieve a new and terrifying clarity when connected to this one experience that he has always kept buried - the nemesis that he is hurtling inevitably towards.

You Dance The Swords Alone, though centred around a man made suddenly alone, deals with how humans relate to each other, particularly through the use of power, control and command. Though often unashamedly bleak, You Dance The Swords Alone, is grimly humorous, often reaching moments of absurd comedy, in its quest for understanding and reconciliation.

DOWNLOAD CERBERUS'S COMPLETE WORKING SCRIPT FOR YOU DANCE THE SWORDS ALONE AT THE BALERNO ARCHIVE

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