Joan Eardley in Corrie

Corrie and Sannox Village hall became a very different place on May 10th at the performance of Anna Carlisle’s ground-breaking new play, brilliantly directed by Marilyn Imrie, celebrating the gifted life stopped in its prime which was Joan Eardley’s. As an audience we felt privileged to spend time in the company of a great painter as she made her way through a life of joys, frustrations, disappointments and triumphs. In this compelling moving promenade production, which was such a successful way to present the play lending intimacy and empathy to the production, we came to understand what it was that fired Joan Eardley, glimpsed her cherished Samson children of Glasgow and heard the sounds of the Catterline storms. We almost felt that we were standing in the waves and cornfields with her.

Joan’s touching life, superbly and movingly acted by Alexandra Mathie who seemed really to be Joan Eardley, unfolded before our eyes entailing story, sound and visual imagery. Also depicted were her steadfast, lifelong friends, Angus Neil and Hugh Adam Crawford, ably played by John Kielty who also performed the haunting music which accompanied the play creating such subtle and atmospheric effects, and the painters, Margot Sandeman and Lil Neilson as well as Audrey Walker, Joan’s key mentor and a successful photographer in her own right. These other female roles were played with utter conviction and versatility by Ashley Smith, an extremely talented young actor.

When Joan Eardley died in 1963, tragically and some would say unnecessarily young, she left behind not only an extraordinary body of work but this steadfast body of people who loved her and never left her till the very last day of her life. I am sure that everyone present that Wednesday evening felt moved and inspired by a truly unique theatrical evening.