Tiger

What to do when one’s husband begins acting strangely, displaying signs of ferality, perhaps disappearing one fine morning and returning—spoiler alert!—transmogrified into the spirit of a giant cat?

Well, if you’re a member of the rigidly ordered and unhappily play-phobic family in Tiger, the answer is: let the beast inside spring out and dance with it. This brilliant piece from Barrowland Ballet, choreographed by Natasha Gilmore, is playing as part of the Made in Scotland showcase, and its fable-style story from playwright Robert Alan Evans has a lesson to teach us all about letting go and cherishing our instinctive sides.

Gilmore’s choreography is quickfire and inventive, summing up ideas and moods—such as the brisk mundanity of family routine—with surprising innovations. When mother and father begin to find their wild sides, the cat’s cradle set Gilmore has built around her dancers (caging them in?) comes into its own in a tangling, erotic wrestle.

She has thought of textures too, and how to bring alive more than just the visuals. Fest does not want to spoil any more of the show’s magical touches, so let’s just say Vince Virr’s interactions with the audience are a multi-sensory delight.

It’s certainly not too much of a spoiler to mention how beautiful and vivacious Kim Moore’s live music is, weaving through the dance with brimming energy. And in one of the final passages, the revelation of mother Kai-Wen Chuang’s inner beauty is as vivid as the spreading of a wild bird’s wings.