Hamish MacDonald’s Singing Far into the Night or the 1931 Invergordon events on stage

Résumé En

Hamish MacDonald’s Singing Far into the Night dramatises and stages the 1931 Invergordon events and their contextual aftermath. This study focuses on the ‘criminal’ domain since in this play, the initial accusation is mutiny, the sailors of the Royal Navy’s Atlantic Fleet refusing duty in order to complain about the 25 % wage cuts imposed upon them as part of the national austerity program. Insubordination within the military frame has been legally court marshalled for centuries as one of the highest offences. Yet, in the afore-mentioned episode, the insurgents who felt within their rights and even wished to negotiate with the Parliament to win the case, were strangely not.Theatres have always offered a space for debate and Hamish MacDonald’s play can be regarded as the dramatisation and staging of some historical and political events of that particular period; the philosophical concepts and ideologies backing them are dealt with as well. Time and memory play an important part in this context-saturated ‘historical collage’. The collection of intertwining reminiscences, reported and narrated by characters inspired by real persons, is concatenated into interlocking flashbacks and present episodes, both set in different places of Britain and Russia. As a genre, historical drama – that is History revisited for the stage – is bound to use ellipsis and the concatenation of time and space. The play is structured around sequences with a national and international focus, alternating with domestic ones to render the chain effect.