Keppoch revisited
Show is a tribute to once vibrant communities
After three sold-out summer shows in Antigonish, “Keppoch The Last Wake” is hitting the road to Mabou, Saturday, Sept. 16, at 7 p.m.
Following on the heels of last year’s Keppoch Kitchen Party, it’s an anniversary turned wake, high on Antigonish County’s Keppoch Mountain. Producer Duncan MacDonald says it is a tribute to all such communities that were once vibrant but have since disappeared.
“There were communities throughout Cape Breton that are much like the Keppoch. The storytelling and music-making carried on until the last families were gone,” said MacDonald.
With a cast of 40 actors and musicians, “Keppoch The Last Wake” will hit the stage at Strathspey Centre with a little Gaelic story-telling, music, traditional songs and a few lively homemade ballads. Presented by the Society for the Ships of 1801 and the group’s fifth show to tour northeastern Nova Scotia, it is more light-hearted than the first three, “The Ships of 1801,” “Strathglass Farewell” and “The Year of the Burning.”
“With our first shows we tried to portray the leaving of Scotland and the prospects in Nova Scotia. In the process we tapped into some amazing talent and the performers had gelled so well we wanted to continue,” said MacDonald, promising the audience lots of laughs.
Some performers are musically trained while others are not but they all share a willingness to improvise and an appreciation of wit and humour, he added.
“Joe MacKinnon, a native Gaelic speaker who was raised in Inverness, plays the part of the patriarch of the MacLeans of Keppoch and he and his sharptongued wife are celebrating their 50th anniversary until they get a call on the new party line about a death on the mountain.”
The Scottish and Irish neighbours agree to assemble again to give the dead gentleman a good send-off, better than he would get from his stingy sister. Besides the neighbours, the wake has a careless moonshiner, a determined Mountie, a couple of stylish young ladies home from the Boston States and a somber parish priest.
“Musically we perform some old favourites that will be wellknown to the audience and some new tunes that poke fun at the government and goings on in the community,” said MacDonald.
The ceilidh tradition held on for a long time on the Keppoch which once had 12 well-known fiddlers among its 67 families, though no one lives there today. True to the old tradition, the show features performers of all ages, including young fiddlers and dancers.
“As jobs became available in the mines and on the railway and in factories in the Boston States and Ontario the young people left these communities and the old people eventually followed. We’re only left with the songs and stories and we hope we’re doing something to carry them on with these shows,” said MacDonald.
Tickets for the shows are available at the Strathspey Centre.
For more information, see Facebook Ships of 1801 Concert.
“Musically we perform some old favourites that will be well-known to the audience and some new tunes that poke fun at the government and goings on in the community.” Producer Duncan MacDonald