Finding My Way on Skye

Susan and I went to see a National Theatre Live performance last night. 

The play was All Our Sons by Arthur Miller.  Some astonishing performances – particularly Bryan Cranston, compelling as the patriarch around whom revolves a whole solar system of moral compromise.  (I already thought he was a genius.  I could not watch more than a couple of series of Breaking Bad – not because of the violence or the generally bleak outlook – so much as the horrible believability of his portrait of a soul disintegrating before one’s eyes.)  Not so keen on the production and direction, however.  Above all, the driving theme of the play is hard to take seriously.  The theme is anger that US society turns out to be driven by amoral capitalism and a refusal to reckon with consequences.  You think?  As of 2026, being surprised by that, let alone shocked, is starting to look pretty adolescent.

What really caught my eye, however, was the venue.  It’s called LAS – https://www.lasportrigh.co.uk/. 

About 20 years ago, a teenager started making fancy candles, and that turned into the Isle of Skye Candle Company.  They have a big shop on the edge of Portree.  On the same site, there’s a pizza restaurant.  And an arts centre, which has recently been revamped (I gather there are fewer but fancier seats now) – used for various live music and performance arts, and including a full cinema programme.

I love this.  It’s really characteristic of life on the islands that people are entrepreneurial and turn their hand to various things.  They always have – back to when people were trying to live off inadequate patches of poor soil, and would also do various crafts, and also go away to work so as to send money home. Clever, adaptable people.