Stornoway, Quebec: Theatre show tells story of Hebridean bandit who became Canada’s most wanted

The Western is enjoying a revival but the new generation of frontier tales has travelled far from black-hatted baddies, silver-badged good guys and warring natives.

The resurgent genre – featuring on screen in hit shows like Yellowstone, 1883, 1923, The English and Django – portrays indigenous Americans as victims rather than villains, addresses race relations and focuses on females.

Now, in a new story written for the stage, the vision expands to a previously overlooked part of the era’s history – the Gaels who travelled to Quebec in the 19th Century and, specifically, an outlaw named Donald Morrison who became the most wanted man in Canada.

Written by Calum MacLeoid, Stornoway, Quebec – named after the settlement in Canada where Morrison and his family called home – tells a fictionalised account of Morrison’s time on the run as he is chased by a female bounty hunter called Mairi MacNeill. It premieres in Stornoway, Lewis, this week before touring the country.

“I understand the enduring appeal of the genre, even though it seemed to disappear for a while – which is incredible considering how massive it was for a long time – but I think it’s making a comeback,” said MacLeoid. “The story of the history of the West is advancing and we’re getting better accounts of those times, and there needs to be a rebalance in how that era is portrayed.”

MacLeoid, who is also a journalist for BBC Alba and Radio nan Gaidheal, came across the story of Donald Morrison and wrote a novel about him that was rich in historical detail. When the opportunity came to write a stage version, he decided to take a more imaginative approach, indulging in the tropes of the western to tell this outlaw’s story.

“Donald Morrison was among the first to be born into these new communities,” he explained. “He went out west as a teenager and spent seven years working as a cowboy between Montana and Texas. He went home and got himself embroiled in his dad’s financial dealings, which weren’t too hot, and they lost the family house and farm and were evicted, so Donald torched everything and went on the run.

“A bounty hunter was sent after him, who Donald killed, and he spent 10 months on the run, being helped and hidden by the Gaelic community who were happy to lie to the police. The $4,000 bounty on his head was the highest in Canadian history until recently and worth several times more than the value of the house that the dispute was over.

“Eventually he was betrayed, caught and sentenced to 18 years’ hard labour but he died after four due to tuberculosis. His story is a really important one, both to the remaining Gaelic communities in Quebec and also to the people of Lewis, who are proud of the story and the mythic, Robin Hood-style, outlaw story, as there is always something so fascinating about those characters.”

Set in 1888, the play features five characters stuck in a remote saloon during a snowstorm. One of them is Donald Morrison (played by Dol Eoin MacKinnon) and hot on his heels is Mairi MacNeill (Elspeth Turner), described as a “badass Barra woman”.

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“I love stories that centre on women in the west and not just as dutiful mothers and wives that you get in a lot of the John Ford stuff,” MacLeoid said.

Stornoway, Quebec features music and song – “an important part of life for Gaels and also for the Western,” explained MacLeoid – and it is performed in Gaelic, English, Quebecoise and British Sign Language.

The play, produced by Theatre Gu Leor and the recipient of a PSS New Gaelic Playwrights’ Bursary, has its world premiere on Thursday, before touring. “I’m proud the world premiere is in Stornoway,” MacLeoid said. “I’m interested to see the reaction because I’m aware most of the people who know of the Donald Morrison story outside of Quebec will be there. I’ve been clear it’s a fictional account and that I’ve taken liberties, so hopefully I don’t get lynched!”

Stornoway, Quebec, opens at Ann Lanntair, Stornoway, from Thursday-Saturday, then Mull, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Inverness and Glasgow on selected dates from April 4-15