Playing with Books: The Yellow Door by Kathleen Jamie

In the fourth year of our celebrated co-productions with the Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh, we presented theatrical and musical explorations of scenes from much-loved books, followed by a discussion with the author and creative teams.

Kathleen Jamie thinks not only of ‘the voice’ in her poetry and essays, but also of ‘listening and the art of listening… bringing the quality of attention to the world.’ Throughout 2021 she wrote short, diary-like observations of what was around her. As we all went online, she went offline into close observation of nature, of the experience of daily life, of family, of loss, anxiety, and hope. The result is a series of pieces which stops you in your tracks; forces you to switch off your device and look around. Jamie describes them as ‘prose-poems, letters, field-notes, poems and poem-notes.’  

David Greig, the Artistic Director of Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum Theatre, as well as a composer, choreographer, and a team of actors and musicians translated these extraordinary fragments for the stage and presented them to an audience for the first time at the 2021 Edinburgh International Book Festival, where this film was recorded live.