Denver Creative Team Hatches Eigg the Musical at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Some stories beg to be put to music. When Colorado composer April Alsup read a Guardian article back in 2017 about the history of Eigg, a small isle in the Scottish Inner Hebrides, she couldn't shake the feeling that the saga needed to be adapted for the stage.

"I think everyone who hears this historical story immediately gravitates to it," Alsup says. "After I read the article about Eigg, I added this story to my list of musical ideas. With some projects, it takes me a while to get going, but with Eigg the Musical, the songs just started coming, so I ran with the idea, did more research and started contacting people to put a team together."

Now, after years of development, the production team is traveling to Scotland to bring Eigg the Musical to the 2023 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the largest fringe festival in the world. The musical, which covers the rich history of the island and commemorates the 25th anniversary of the Isle of Eigg community buyout, will also be presented at Vintage Theatre on Sunday, July 23, at 6 and 8 p.m., for those who want to see the show but cannot afford tickets to Edinburgh.

"The story is pretty well known in Europe, but it's never been fictionalized before," says the musical's book writer, Mark Sbani. "We are telling a story with radical politics and using cèilidh music, which is traditional Scottish music that has never been used in a musical before, to depict real-life characters. The main theme of the musical is the return of land to the Eiggers, who had been subjected to British landowners for hundreds of years, who treated the island like a vacation spot.

"Wealthy landlords would trash the island and abuse the islanders, so the citizens banded together to raise enough money to purchase the island in the world's first community buyout of an island," he continues. "They still own the island and generate all of their own electricity, which is cool because it means they are completely self-sufficient."
The transfer to community ownership is a captivating example of Scottish land reform that acted as a catalyst for Scotland’s Land Reform Act of 2003. "Eigg the Musical has a similar feel to Come From Away," Alsup says. "It’s about the people who live on this small island; there is just one schoolhouse, families who have been there for generations and this rich tradition of cèilidh. Can you imagine this rich guy coming with his friends and Playboy bunnies on helicopters to party on Eigg? It was a huge culture shock."

Eigg the Musical focuses on the conflict between one of the final owners of Eigg, Clifford Keith Wain Schellenberg, an English businessman and Olympic bobsledder, and the locals who live on the island year-round. Contrary to the previous landowners, Schellenberg came to Eigg with conservationist goals; he wanted to preserve the island's natural environment and restore its listed buildings. However, the islanders accused Schellenberg of neglecting their homes, closing the community hall and restricting leases.

"I included all these true stories about the outrageous stuff Clifford did to the islanders in the musical," Sbani says. "Clifford would take his friends around Eigg dressed in shock trooper uniforms and use their tennis rackets to pelt the islanders with tennis balls. He also had a silver Rolls-Royce that he would drive on the one road in town and steer toward the Eiggers to try to hit them with his car. In response to this, the Eiggers, or someone, burned his Rolls-Royce down to its shell."

Tensions between Schellenberg and the Eiggers reached a boiling point in 1994, and he decided that the violent clashes were not worth his conservation efforts. Schellenberg sold Eigg to Gotthilf Christian Eckhard Österle the following year. Österle was persuaded to sell Eigg to the locals by the Isle Eigg Heritage Trust, a community trust established by the Highland Council, the Scottish Wildlife Trust and a number of residents. 

"If you take a step back, Clifford was the eighth or ninth lord who had been in charge of the island during many of the citizens' lifetimes," Alsup says. "The islanders had been going through this cruel system of ownership for centuries and were rightly pissed off. Clifford came to the island with the best intentions; he wanted Eigg to be his utopia. He had a genuine vision for the island, but it was not based in reality."
During Alsup's visit to the island in 2019, she experienced a breakthrough in the production process. "After I went to the island and participated in a cèilidh dance, I came back and told Mark we had to change the show," she says. "I knew we had to incorporate cèilidh sounds into the musical, because that was central to the spirit of Eigg. What we were previously developing would have been a good show, but now it is more intimate and closer to the real-life experience of the islanders."

The musical's score, according to Eigg the Musical's director, Kelly McAllister, is what got him to agree to the project. "What really drew me in, and the moment I knew this show was going to be fucking awesome, was when I went to April's place and she played the score for me on the accordion," McAllister says. "It was like a fucking revelation. I hadn't heard of the story, but once I heard the music, I was 100 percent in."

Eigg the Musical showcases a Denver-based team that has been rehearsing at the First Baptist Church of Denver. For many of those involved, this is the first time they have worked together to create a musical from the ground up.

"Being able to work with the writer and the composer on the world premiere of Eigg the Musical is such a unique experience," says choreographer and performer Heather Westenskow. "It's moving, changing and growing so much. It is empowering as an artist to really feel like a part of the process; if something isn’t feeling right, we can tweak it a bit to make it better. We’re all kind of feeling the chills and the magic as we build the show together."

One of the challenges the actors discussed while workshopping the musical was the difficulty of portraying characters based on real-life people. Because the story occurred so recently, many of the characters in the musical are still alive.

"Eigg the Musical is unique because we're telling a true story," says actor Tracy Denver. "These people are real people, and that's different than other shows. I feel like there's a real responsibility to truly tell their story. It's really meaningful what they did. I think people will enjoy watching this human story about a town that rallies around a cause to advance the good of the people who live there. I always have in the back of my mind that there is a chance that these people who we are playing could attend the show in Scotland, so I just want to be really respectful of their story and try to tell it the best we can without knowing them personally."

"I'm playing Cliff, who, in many ways, is the villain of the story, but he is also based on a real person, too," adds actor Cooper Kaminsky. "I’ve been trying to respect and honor the truth of the story while also imbuing my character with a sense of originality, momentum, and all of those things that make good musical storytelling."
McAllister stresses that although a great deal of research has gone into the musical, at the end of the day, his focus is on making the history engaging for audience members. "We're not making a documentary; we're telling a story," he says. "We have all this research, but sometimes you have to lie in order to tell the truth of the story. Because we cannot fit every single fact into the musical, it is a delightful blend of authentic storytelling that incorporates elements of musical theater to tell the story in an exciting and entertaining way."

The team is hoping to raise $20,000 via an IndieGoGo campaign to help cover flights to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, lodging and technical elements. Perks for donating to the fundraiser include a mention in the program, a thank-you video on social media, drinks with the cast, tickets for the show and more.

The musical is currently scheduled to debut at Greenside @ Riddles Court on August 4 and run through August 12. As with all shows at the Fringe, the team has seventy minutes to get into the theater, set up, perform Eigg the Musical and strike their materials.

"We are working hard to get our show as tight as possible within our 55-minute performance slot," McAllister says. "But I'm not worried, because this is one of the best groups I’ve ever worked with. You just feel everybody’s positivity in rehearsals. The whole team is so game and smart; I’m so lucky to be part of Eigg the Musical's journey. I'm proud of the musical and excited to share our work at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with international artists from around the world." 

Eigg the Musical, 6 and 8 p.m. Sunday, July 23, Vintage Theatre, 1468 Dayton Street, Aurora. Find more information at eigg.show.