Herald Young Critics
Night Walk for Edinburgh
From The Milkman, Cockburn Street, Edinburgh
Olivia Campanile
five stars
JANET Cardiff and George Bures Miller have brought one of their famous audio-visual walks to Auld Reekie. Working with The Fruitmarket Gallery (as they have previously) and the Edinburgh International Festival, Cardiff’s voice guides you through what seems the secret Edinburgh. You hear her, and a whole second world, through headphones. You follow her movements through a phone, seeing what is really in front of you, and this other reality too.
Sound is a strength in the pair's work, and this is no exception. It creates a city within the city, and I found myself turning around when hearing footsteps or laughter, expecting to see the source behind me. As I step onto the Royal Mile, there’s a subtle intake of breath before a bubble is popped and we hear an amplified version of what the Mile sounds like. The Mile, and other well-known areas, feel like themselves in Technicolour and Surround Sound.
There is a thread of a narrative running through the walk with characters reappearing along with Cardiff’s missing coat. Norman MacCaig’s and Walter Scott’s poetry is used to link a focus on air vents. The connections made create a sense of seeing Edinburgh breathe, and the music throughout like Edinburgh singing. You might wish for more of a conclusion but the quiet ending is still satisfying.
Anyone lucky enough to experience Night Walk will have their perception of Edinburgh changed forever, and their ideas of past and present turned upside down.
*Olivia Campanile is a pupil at Holyrood High School in Edinburgh and this review was submitted as part of The Herald Young Critics project with the Edinburgh International Festival.
More Holyrood High reviews of Night Walk appear below:
Festival Visual Art
Night Walk for Edinburgh
From The Milkman, Cockburn Street
Weronika Krawczyk
three stars
MADE by Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller, Night Walk for Edinburgh is an audio and video walk, that leads you through the Edinburgh’s Old Town. Its just you, a pair of headphones and a little screen that helps you see the town’s secrets and mysterious events.
At the beggining of the play, you are not quite sure what to expect. You are just listening to a story. I think the concept of it is really interesting, yet it starts to feel a little bit repetitive. The majority of scenes are just you walking and listening to the voice, where occasionally some scenes are interupted by actors doing things. However the scenes are not leading to anything, and its like the play wants you to think of the story for yourself, rather than presenting it to you.
Anyhow, even if the plot wasn’t the strongest, the audio make it up for it. It was the main thing that created the mood and atmosphere, and there were moments where I had to pause the video to see if someone’s behind me, as the footsteps felt real. Even if I was surrounded by completely different people in a completely different time, I felt like in a different world.
The idea is quite unique. The whole experience felt really interesting and you don’t feel bored. Its almost like being a part of a play rather than an audience. However, even the most amazing concept, could be pushed in the wrong direction, and thats what ‘Night Walk for Edinburgh’ felt like.
Festival Visual Art
Night Walk for Edinburgh
From The Milkman, Cockburn Street
Martyna A. Gorska
four stars
IT was nothing like I have ever experienced before. Another 'physical cinema' piece by Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller that blended fiction and reality and crafted an amazing experience that was shown by the Edinburgh International Festival.
I enjoyed the ghost-like tour aspect very much, learning about History but also Ourselves. There were parts that made me feel helpless, wanting to help the characters on screen, yet, also realise how normal it is for people of Edinburgh to walk past beggars, me not feeling much effect by that scene. It was an fully eye-opening experience as much as an enjoyable one.
Although the production felt unfinished. When it ended, if felt more like it stopped half-way through. It didn't give us a more clear link between the events we witnessed nor a clear climax. I feel like a climax would have been best to consider.
What I loved the most about it is that, even if it did have an inconclusive end, it does give us enough clarification during the walk to make sense of the bits and pieces and, after, leave us thinking. Wondering. Creating. This is a creation that inspires creation. And THAT is what amazed me the most. The amount of thought I put into it after and how many different ideas I created of possible narratives.
Overall, it was an unforgettable experience that I hope to go through again next year with a new concept, hopefully even better!
Festival Visual Art
Night Walk for Edinburgh
From The Milkman, Cockburn Street
Dylan Berry
two stars
BEING different, in any form of art, doesn’t ultimately mean that its bad, if it's done right it can be a masterpiece, however “Night walk for Edinburgh” tries to be different and fails at it. With a lack lustre plot that left you wanting more, and a sore arm from holding the performance in your hand.
Night walk for Edinburgh turns against what teachers say in schools and forces you to look at a phone screen instead of the beautiful city in front of you. You start on Cockburn street and walk around the royal mile, and eventually end up where you started. All the while holding a phone in your hands and having headphones in your ears. It puts you in a first person prospective with the person talking to you playing as your inner monologue. There was no plot to speak off you're just listening to someone speak.
Throughout the performance, the voice through your headphones asks you to look at monuments and hidden drains, when I look at them myself, away from the screen, I'm punished as the performance has walked of forcing me to catch up with myself. The pacing is also difficult to wrap your head around, as you are literally walking in someone's footsteps, I found it hard to keep up the pace, often missing things and having to turn back or being too far away. It often made me feel out of place and disjointed, it might have been intentional, but I didn’t enjoy it.
Festival Visual Art
Night walk for Edinburgh
From The Milkman, Cockburn Street
Luke Davies
two stars
THE story’s performance felt incomplete, lacked progression and had a tedious climax, when you finally understood it. The story used unrelated dialogue about Edinburgh’s history that seemed to attempt to make me feel anxious as like a trope to seem cultured yet going into little to no detail. This revolutionary way of presenting a story is fueled by immersing the consumer and through in story directions like tap the screen that was clunky and took away from the immersion. However, they were successful at capturing the stress of navigating through the streets and closes of Edinburgh as you avoid eccentric street acts and busy tourists. However, this was short lived as pointless stops, meaningless metaphors and general descriptions further distracted me. Also, colliding with other participants on the “isolated” story meant you no longer felt as intimate with the narrator. Some moments of tension gave hope for the media but was rushed and unconnected with the journey. The high tech headphones that also noise canceling abilities built in was sometimes almost comforting to hear the footsteps and city life and life around you making it seem natural even when it made me feel nervous I felt like it was a right choice up to the point that it felt like an autonomous sensory meridian response, asmr, video. A redeeming factor for this new media is the path you travel when dark can get creepy to fit the feel of the performance while it gets darker and a colder night.
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