The Haunting Story of St. Kilda on Stage

A mysterious island off the coast of Scotland is the subject of “St. Kilda,” Jody Christopherson’s creepy ghost story for adults which will be presented by the Neo-Political Cowgirls at LTV Studios on Thursday, October 27. This one-woman tale of supernatural horror is steeped in Scottish folklore and told in a tradition as ancient as its subject matter. In “St. Kilda,” after the death of her grandmother, an American woman travels to an abandoned island off the coast of Scotland and unearths a dark family secret in a world where the past is anything but dead.

Written and performed by Christopherson, the show is inspired by her Nebraska roots, her Scottish heritage and the real-life 1930 evacuation of Scotland’s St. Kilda island. The show features the lost music of the archipelago, discovered in 2016 and it is filled with a unique sound score, lighting and special effects, which Christopherson uses to conjure a multi-layered storytelling experience in near darkness.

Recently, Christopherson offered some insight into the creation of “St. Kilda” and shared details about what audiences might experience at the show.

Q: Can you tell me about your connection to the real island of St. Kilda? Did your own ancestors live there or was it a place that you learned about through research or another way?

JC: I’m a fan of abandoned places. Abandoned islands are terrific because, dramatically, they’re pressure cookers for action. There’s nowhere to hide. Nothing about them is comfortable. They highlight the differences between modern living and the natural world… or how civilization can once again become the natural world.

St. Kilda is a famous example of an uninhabitable world for humans, yet other things flourish there. I like places that reject us and thrive after the humans have gone. There’s a wealth of primary source research about St. Kilda that ranges from evacuation letters to interviews, music, plus scientific research. It’s a utopia, just not for humans. I wanted to write about a woman traveling alone in nature and this location presented many horrific possibilities. Also, the island itself has been rumored to be shaped like a woman. Keith Payne has a series of drawings/maps he did there that I really like.

Q: Have you ever traveled to the island yourself?

JC: I’ve not yet been able to go. Do you know anyone who might want to facilitate and come along? Hahaha. Seriously, though, I’d love to go. It’s on my bucket list, along with purchasing a satellite phone. St. Kilda can be a dangerous trip due to weather and the island being very exposed to the elements. You’re allowed to go during two months out of the year. There’s a museum there, and some of the original housing structures you can get permission to stay in overnight, for no longer than two nights. There’s an old helicopter pad from when the island was a military base as well. I like the idea of taking a boat there and from that boat riding the rest of the way in a dingy that’s been sealed inside that vessel. It’s the most environmentally friendly way to do it, and the least disturbing to ecosystem, and animals that live there. St. Kilda is a naturally occurring wildlife sanctuary.

Q: Can you share a bit about the storyline in “St. Kilda”?

JC: This is a story about an American woman from the plains of Nebraska who’s been living off the grid in a trailer on the Missouri River with her grandmother. When her grandmother passes away she leaves our main character a map to St. Kilda which, little does our main character know, is the beginning of a quest, during which she uncovers a dark family secret. She travels to St. Kilda with a handsome Dutch tour guide who is willing to charter small private tours in the off season. Haze, the sins of the past, music, revenge and mystical folklore play a large part in the events that unfold.

Q: How did you devise the plot of the piece? Is it drawn from personal experience, folklore or something else?

JC: All my work begins with primary source research. I’m very curious about details and can go down the rabbit hole for months, sometimes a year, digging through the archeology of stories. I love history and gadgets, learning dialects — for St. Kilda and often other shows with my talented dialect coach Chloe Dirksen. I like specificity, the challenge of digging into the ‘why’ and the ‘how.’ I let my questions and curiosities run wild, lead me in any direction and then eventually sit down and write. I’m a fan of interviewing people about their experiences on a topic. I’ve worked as a journalist and have interviewed over 170 subjects. I started applying that skill in dramatic practice on this project. I interviewed a number of female-presenting humans about their experiences traveling alone, asked them how and why, what their elders think of it, which spots they dream of visiting. While I don’t lift any of their words or specific situations — those are theirs to tell — it does help me to have conversations and collectively dream or think on ways to push back.

So I would say my work is a mix of history dialed up to an 11, fiction and personal experience.

Q: What is it about the place that captured your imagination and made you think this would be a good setting for a ghost story?

JC: People petitioned for evacuation assistance to leave. St. Kilda was a paradise but the people who had been there for over 4,000 years suddenly left. Sounds like a mystery to me! I was curious about the leaving and if anyone had returned, about what happened to the culture. I was curious about the young woman who died of an appendicitis right before the inhabitants evacuated. This is a place where colonization had occurred. There were a number of traditions that changed when that happened. Decolonization is something I’m interested in, especially in relation to what that means for women’s freedoms.

Q: You use a lot of unusual sound and lighting effects in the piece to enhance the tale. Can you explain how some of them were designed and are used to heighten the emotions of the audience?

JC: Sure, I operate a homemade lighting system, created with dimmable clip lights and 12 Foley instruments all made from household items. I like turning the ordinary into something that can function extraordinarily onstage, a type of holy trash. These are all things that represent older forms of storytelling.

I also love new technologies and use a vocal looper. This was something Andy Evan Cohen, who masterfully designed the sound, and I really got excited about for the storytelling architecture of the piece. The looper allows me to record Foley sounds and vocals in different layers, in order to create a sort of audio spell or incantation. The show is fully underscored like that.

I also have a lovely hazer that functions as a supernatural force in the show. There are voice memo recordings from Europe — the voice of Dutch actor Michael de Roos as our dark tour guide, Yfke.

Blending the magic of the new world and the old world is a main theme in St. Kilda. And also all these elements allow me to conjure a full feeling theatrical experience about a woman traveling alone, while I travel alone onstage.

When I say the whole show is underscored, sometimes that means with music, sometimes that means with the faint sound of a wet howling wind or hiking boots on stone or the cold spray of the Atlantic Ocean or the way breath or a heartbeat changes when fear creeps into them.

Q: Do you think of yourself primarily as a storyteller, a writer or an actor? Or something else perhaps?

JC: I often say I’m a generative artist or multi-hyphenate artist. I act, write, produce, direct, make some props and set pieces. It’s a fun way to allow research and to manifest in different iterations of my practice. My entry point to a subject always begins with an emotional hunch and a visualization. If I can connect with a spark emotionally, I can usually visualize it in my mind’s eye.

I’m opinionated and specific, especially when it comes to telling stories about women moving through trauma, having agency. I’m lucky to have incredible collaborators who are masters of their crafts and bring their own humanity to the collaboration.

Q: I love the idea of a ghost story for adults — and a one-woman show makes it more spooky than if it were a full production. There’s a sense of vulnerability that you wouldn’t necessarily get in a larger production. Are there other productions out there that you know of that evoke a similar kind of experience?

JC: I agree. When a performer is talking directly to you there’s an opportunity to get invested in their journey. We tend to root more for them, get attached. I think this works well for spooky stuff especially.

It’s not a spooky show but this happens in stand-up. Hannah Gadsby is one of my favorite solo artists. Hannah really redefined and expanded the definition of comedy specials. She’s a master of creating empathy.

Horror is a great tool for that too.

Q: You grew up in Nebraska. What role did Scottish folklore play in your life as a youngster?

Haha, OK, so, out of respect for the privacy of my family I’m not going to delve into this too much — after all, there’s a rule in horror that when you gain sacred knowledge you must suffer the consequences. It’s all in the show in some way or another. I’d say storytelling and a strong connection to Earth and nature have always been a large part of my family history.

I came from a place that had fewer readily available resources. What we needed we often made or found creative ways of sourcing. Entertainment growing up was filled with active play, verbal storytelling and pageantry. We had to find ways to make events special and celebratory. The theater — especially indie theater — is a great place for these practices too.”

Q: Have you ever had audience members who were so unnerved by the show that they had to leave mid-way? I would take that as a compliment, by the way!

JC: Absolutely. On an opening night at a midnight show in Edmonton, an audience member ran down the risers toward me, and vomited down the length of the entrance hallway. It was roughly 15 feet of carpeting.

To be fair, that theater was next to a beer tent and the festival had been going on for 12 hours.

There’s an anecdote that during early screenings of the film, ‘Jaws,’ audience vomited but then came back to see how the film ends. So, that’s how they knew it was going to be a hit.

I don’t know if my vomity patron came back but my friends insisted that was the night I joined the Spielberg club.

“St. Kilda,” Jody Christopherson’s one-woman ghost story for adults, will be performed on Thursday, October 27, at 7 p.m., at LTV Studios in Wainscott. Presented by the Neo-Political Cowgirls, the show is appropriate for ages 16 and up. Tickets are $20, $15 for seniors and students. VIP tables are $200 for four and include adult beverages and snacks.Seats can be reserved by visiting ltveh.org/stkilda. LTV Studios is at 75 Industrial Road, Wainscott.