A Scottish playwright is exploring the impact of American gun violence in her new play Americana: A Murder Ballad.
Written by Morna Young, originally from Moray, the production explores how young people are caught in an endlessly repeating cycle of killing.
The play is produced by Pepperdine Scotland and is running at the Edinburgh Fringe from August 3 to 17.
Young has created a drama which uses the murder ballad to explore how America’s youth, who regularly have to take part in active shooter drills at school, are constantly living in fear of gun violence.
Speaking to The National, Young said: “I’ve thought a lot about the role that music plays in stories. I had been reading about the journey of ballads from Scotland to the US.
“I became a bit obsessed with the form of the murder ballad which were like the tabloids of their time.
“They glorified death, particularly when it came to the murder of young women.
“We see these repeated reports of mass shootings and this idea of America being its own ballad just struck me as something interesting to explore.”
Murder ballad lyrics describe a narrative surrounding a murder, often including the events leading up to it and the aftermath.
Between 1968 and 2017, there were 1.5 million deaths as a result of shootings in the United States – higher than the number of soldiers killed in every conflict the US has been involved in since the American War for Independence in 1775.
Shootings accounted for 79% of all homicides in the US in 2020 compared to just 4% in the UK.
Young’s play, however, is very specifically set in the fictional Americana because “I didn’t want to make it set in Texas or New York,” she says.
She added: “I wanted to look at this myth of the American dream. There’s keywords and ideas I remember learning about in modern studies.
“Americana was about taking all those elements and putting them in this one mythical place.”
Young has a lot of praise for the cast, partly because it’s closer to home for many of them than her.
She said: “All these kids I worked with were born post-Columbine which means they’ve never known a world where this hasn’t been a threat."
The Columbine High School massacre took place in 1999 and led to the murder of 12 students and one teacher.
Young continued: “They constantly do active shooter drills from nursery. There’s now studies into kids being diagnosed with PTSD just from doing the drills.
“That fills me with such horror. “These students are so amazing because they’re so articulate and passionate about where they exist in society and how they feel about that.
“They’re part of a culture war they had no part in making because in many ways it’s down to the older generation.”
Haley Powell (22), originally from America, is starring in Americana in what is her first time both at the Fringe and in Scotland.
She said: “I’m a little scared to go to the Fringe because it’s giant and there’s so many people but everyone has been so nice."
The play was originally meant to be performed in 2020 but had to be delayed due to Covid and, although there have been some changes to the cast, Haley has remained throughout the whole process.
She added: “We were all desperately hoping and praying and wishing that they wouldn’t make us do a different play.
“When shootings gets reported on, it feels simultaneously more mundane and exhausting but also more aggravating because I understand it more having worked on this play.
“There’s no reason for this to keep happening. There’s a lot of answers someone could pick to solve this problem but we’re not picking any of them.”
During the pandemic, many gun stores in the US were allowed to stay open because they were recognised as an essential service.
In Massachusetts, gun sales have hit record levels over the past two years as buying increased during Covid.
Powell added:"Some gun stores were allowed to stay open because they were considered essential items although that wasn't in every state.
"A lot of people were angry about that."
Young's praise for Powell and her fellow actors is reciprocated by the young actor.
She said: "The content is so heavy and serious but Morna is fantastic to be around." Young says there were very little changes made to the play and that, if anything, the cycle of violence it explores was only enhanced by the delay.
“The play didn’t change based on recent shootings and that’s partly because this madness, this exhaustion of the same cycle is exactly what the play is questioning at its heart anyway.
“We had to have the conversation about whether this work is still relevant and it’s devastating that it is – I don’t want it to be relevant.
"I wish we did our development, had a great time getting to know each other but that we could put it to one side and make something different. “It saddens me that the longer we stay with this, the more relevant it feels.”
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