[size=14]NAN GARLAND - CHARACTER BACK STORY...[/size]
AGNES DAILLY has run away from home to join the group as she is about to be found out for truancy.. She has been worried about her Highers and has endured bullying since she went to secondary school. She is a very clever girl who doesn't like the idea of her exam results deciding her future, and is heading for the camp with very mixed emotions. Agnes heard about the camp from an English teacher who was impressed by her contribution to her 'Lord Of The Flies' debate although, her impassioned speech had been all but drowned out by her torturers chanting 'Anxious! Anxious!' Agnes loves the songs of Morrisey and the stories of Alice Munro.
more...
KATHLEEN PHIN cycled to work in the office of Kestrel Marine for five years before resigning over a bitter personal dispute with a manager. The following week she won the pools; a very large sum of money which she used to travel all over Europe cycling between expensive hotels and spending money on acts of kindness towards the old and young. During a visit to Inverewe Gardens she met a man called Raymond Hunter from Cumbernauld who she allowed to repair her bicycle while she had a cup of tea. Raymond asked her to marry him before they left the cafeteria. Kathleen politely turned him down and cycled off to Perth where she was reminded of the camp by a travelling woman who told Kathleen that she was a remarkably lucky woman. She is a Miles Davis disciple.
ROSE MacMASTER's twin sister Debbie inadvertantly killed her budgie while Rose was camping for the weekend at the back of Alyth. Debbie didn't feed the bird and there was a furious row after which Rose ran away with a carnival hand who taught her how to drink. She travelled with the carnival all over the North of England for a year, regularly being ejected from pubs for crying the budgie's name out of context. One night in a pub in Newcastle she fell in with Esther Porteous who was making her way northwards and told Rose about 'ABSENTIA', "... where the birdsong was better than the radio..". She stopped drinking and made her way to the camp where she became one of the most pragmatic and helpful members of the society. Rose is strong, reliable and secretly, a Slim Whitman fan.
ESTHER PORTEOUS trained as a Nanny at the Norland Institute where she was the top student in her year. After leaving college she became a croupier in a secret casino in Anstruther where she met a South African drummer with whom she went to Cape Town. Esther fell for the music of the townships and became an agitator in the struggle against Apartheid. She had a tape recorder and made many quality recordings of songs banned by the government, sending them to radio stations and friends around the world. Raising funds for these songwriters became her obsession and she came to be regarded as an angel by the music community. There was a rumour that Dollar Brand had written a tune for her. Esther has never said why she came back and nobody has asked her about it. She replied to an ad in the paper for a Nanny's job.
MERGRET SCANLON was a shop steward in Timex up until its closure, when she stole the X from the big sign during the night, helped by her friend Kathleen Phin. They met when Mergret was delivering money raised by the Timex workers for the occupation force at the Smith and Hutton sit-in. One of the boilermakers was a member of Kathleen's cycling club and she was there to make a contribution also. Mergret was married very briefly and her husband was killed in the Falkland Islands. She moved to the camp not long after the Timex closure having visited many times over the years. She is familiar with many of the old bothy ballads and the songs of the travelling people.
NAN GARLAND is a very strong swimmer and admires the work of Joni Mitchell and Liz L
ochhead.
All other cast members apart from the police have been at the camp since their early teens.
