Ezzy is a teenage traveller girl who lives with her travelling family. While living in a ‘scaldie hoose’, a “country person’s hoose” she meets Charlie, a teenage girl dissatisfied with her own everyday life and the direction she is seemingly fated to take. When Ezzy and her family return to the travelling life Charlie runs away to join her friend. She is well looked after and enjoys a night of story-telling and music. Ezzy’s mother, Mary Helen rings Charlie’s mother knowing that she will be concerned about the whereabouts of her daughter. When Charlie’s mother arrives she is bigoted and rude; this is especially reprehensible given the hospitality extended to her daughter. Eventually Charlie manages to escape again and heads for London to find her father.
This is a play that redeems travelling people from the prejudices and assumptions made by ‘scaldie’ folk, presenting a more realistic image of the individuals in this minority group. The play was based on an original short story by teenage traveller, Evelyn Gilhaney, who won Theatre Workshop’s new writing competition in 1998.
“A fine, gripping, sometimes disturbing piece of theatre” (Joyce MacMillan, The Scotsman)