I Am Kevin review – spine-tingling stories on the sand in atmospheric theatre show | Film

There are some spine-tingling moments in this film of what looks like a beguiling outdoor production staged last summer by the Cornish theatre group Wildworks (best known for working with Michael Sheen on The Passion in Port Talbot in 2011). The extraordinary atmospheric setting here is the beaches of Carlyon Bay near St Austell at dusk – the golden glow of the gloaming over a dark calm sea. Inside a circle of driftwood on the sand, a singing Greek chorus of Fates give us a content warning: they will be telling stories and “some can be hard to swallow, wild like the sea”.

These stories are framed by a fairytale about a pregnant woman (Hannah McPake) rescued from attackers by the chorus themselves. There’s a lovely piece of prop play as a wooden salad bowl is lifted to the sky to represent the sun, then lowered as her pregnant belly. In return for her safety the woman agrees to be transformed into a tree; years later, as a teenager, her son (Zach Hawkins) sets out on journey to find her.

His journey takes him through the Fates’ stories, mostly recognisable from myth. In the real-life show, the audience walked along the beach to the different sets, watching actors who find emotional connections in the familiar stories. There’s Pandora of Greek myth fame, decades after curiosity got the better of her, tormented to madness by grief and regret (her box is a huge shipping container). Icarus – a tale even little kids can reel off – is appalling to watch, a boy killed in front of his father’s eyes. There is something here about how stories shape us and form the landscape inside our minds. Watching the film, you long to be there in landscape proper, feeling your toes in the sand, listening to the sea.

There are some spine-tingling moments in this film of what looks like a beguiling outdoor production staged last summer by the Cornish theatre group Wildworks (best known for working with Michael Sheen on The Passion in Port Talbot in 2011). The extraordinary atmospheric setting here is the beaches of Carlyon Bay near St Austell at dusk – the golden glow of the gloaming over a dark calm sea. Inside a circle of driftwood on the sand, a singing Greek chorus of Fates give us a content warning: they will be telling stories and “some can be hard to swallow, wild like the sea”.

These stories are framed by a fairytale about a pregnant woman (Hannah McPake) rescued from attackers by the chorus themselves. There’s a lovely piece of prop play as a wooden salad bowl is lifted to the sky to represent the sun, then lowered as her pregnant belly. In return for her safety the woman agrees to be transformed into a tree; years later, as a teenager, her son (Zach Hawkins) sets out on journey to find her.

His journey takes him through the Fates’ stories, mostly recognisable from myth. In the real-life show, the audience walked along the beach to the different sets, watching actors who find emotional connections in the familiar stories. There’s Pandora of Greek myth fame, decades after curiosity got the better of her, tormented to madness by grief and regret (her box is a huge shipping container). Icarus – a tale even little kids can reel off – is appalling to watch, a boy killed in front of his father’s eyes. There is something here about how stories shape us and form the landscape inside our minds. Watching the film, you long to be there in landscape proper, feeling your toes in the sand, listening to the sea.