Not a 1970s movie made up largely of stock footage from Seaworld, this
Orca
is the latest Papatango winner, a playwrighting award that seems to have a weakness
for scripts with a dark fantasy or sci-fi touch. But Matt Grinter's play only
features the supernatural as part of its mythology, the actual immediate threat is
all too inevitably human. The setting is a remote Scottish island, the time could be
almost any part of the last hundred years, and the atmosphere is one of determined
isolation: Fishing is naturally the main occupation, but while the boats go out to
sea every day, it's very unusual for anyone to visit one of the neighbouring
islands, let alone the mainland. Orca pods have been spotted in the ocean over the
centuries, and are blamed for scaring off the fish whenever times are bad; the
islanders have created a mythology and an associated annual ritual to protect their
catch.
