‘An authentic P.E.I. experience’
Highland Storm’ digs into history of the province in a show featuring music, dance, storytelling
As the heat cranks up outside, performers are bringing down a storm on the stage of the Celtic Performing Arts Centre in Summerside.
“Highland Storm” is back with uplifting musical numbers, stunning visuals, military-precision and step and Highland dancers, all blended with seamless storytelling.
Over the years, the summer production has touched the hearts of a devoted audience. Many people return again and again to soak in this celebration of the P.E.I.- Scottish spirit.
Peter Gallant, director of “Highland Storm”, says to add to the experience there’s a twist in the show, like nothing seen before.
“There’s a storm! we’re going full tilt with a blizzard and debris to stage a winter scene,” he said.
The show pays homage to the early Scottish settlers that arrived by three vessels on the Malpeque shore in 1770.
“The Falmouth, Annabella and Edinburgh are the three vessels appearing throughout the show. The Annabella and the Edinburgh arrived each carrying
60 families, and the Falmouth carried 60 men destined to begin a flax plantation in the Malpeque area. We scoped this history for the show,” Gallant said.
“We contacted the Mi’kmaq Confederacy to confirm the information is correct and respectful, and they came back with great advice. We contacted historian Georges Arsenault for information on the Acadian expulsion and Fred Horne from Culture Summerside for the Irish, English and Scottish history.”
Jen Beck and Jay Perry enhance the mood and atmosphere using lights, stage and sound. Lights create shadows across the cast for more sombre moments or establish a time and location.
“The two are like magicians,” said Gallant.
The audience is taken, on the edge of their seat, through the early history of the Island.
“This is an authentic P.E.I. experience, and not just about Scotland because we are not them. We have our own, unique past,” said Gallant.
Combined with haunting melodies of traditional songs and the consuming fire of the fiddle, there’s “Pippin’s song – Edge of the Night,” from “The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King” and the performance of Celtic singer Christine Gallant.
“People come to the show expecting good music and dance, but they leave blown away by the whole production – right from the visuals to the choreography,” said James MacHattie, an award-winning piper of more than 30 years and teacher with the College of Piping, who plays Con Douly in the show, quite possibly the first piper on the Island.