This event was an opportunity to hear from Kathleen Jaimie (poet and former Scottish Makar) about her essay ‘On Rona’, and how this essay inspired the creation of the Scottish-Noh theatre production ‘Song of Rona Island’ from Akiko Yanagisawa (Director/Producer), Aidan O’Rourke (fiddler) and Brighde Chaimbeul.
Song of Rona Island is a pioneering work that brings Japanese Noh theatre and Scottish literature, music and nature into dialogue. It is inspired by ‘On Rona’, an essay by highly acclaimed poet and former Scottish Makar Kathleen Jamie collected in her book Sightlines.
It reflects on her experiences accompanying a wildlife and archaeological survey on the abandoned remote island of North Rona in the Outer Hebrides. The production brings together six celebrated noh performers from Japan, acclaimed fiddler Aidan O’Rourke and Scottish smallpipes player Brighde Chaimbeul.
Prior to the world premiere, Kathleen Jamie shared her experiences on North Rona, the most remote island in the Outer Hebrides, illustrated with images and data from her colleague, ornithologist Stuart Murray. Akiko Yanagisawa, Aidan O’Rourke, Brighde Chaimbeul and Gareth Mattey, the dramaturg then joined Jamie for a discussion of the creative process that led to this Scottish-Japanese Noh theatre collaboration.
Special thanks to Stuart Murray for providing us his incredible images of life on Rona Island.
About Kathleen Jamie
Kathleen Jamie is a poet and essayist. Her poetry collections include The Tree House, which won the Forward prize. Her non-fiction essays are collected in the three highly regarded books: Findings, Sightlines, and Surfacing, all regarded as important contributions to the ‘new nature writing’. In 2024 she published Cairn, ‘a view from the strange here-and-now’, and The KeelieHawk, a collection of poems in Scots.
Between 2010 and 2020 Kathleen was Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Stirling, and from 2021-24 she served as Scotland’s Makar, or National Poet.
Kathleen’s interests include archaeology, nature and environment, travel and art.
