Outlying Islands
King’s Head Theatre, London

FIRST given an outing in Edinburgh in 2002 and only staged once in London since then, David Greig's Outlying Islands follows the fortunes of Robert and John, two young ornithologists fresh from university who, in 1939, land on a tiny uninhabited Scottish island for a cold summer studying the habits of the local birdlife.

They're accompanied by the island’s puritanical absentee leaseholder Kirk and his somewhat cowed but quietly smouldering adopted niece Ellen, sent to keep an eye on them until the boat returns in four week’s time.

Dramatic developments overtake the party almost as soon as they step onto the rock, setting the three youngsters free from any semblance of authority and pitching them into a dreamlike whirlpool of emotions as they consider where their new-found autonomy away from the prying eyes of society might take them.