Culross Abbey is the setting for Maiden Mother Mage, three poetic monologues about sixth-century noblewoman Thaney (better known as St Enoch of Glasgow, mother of St Mungo). She is reborn via the pen of Rebecca Sharp, inaugural artist-in-residence at St Andrews University’s Centre For Energy Ethics. Her verse play (a site-specific performance with an original live score) is published by Matecznik Press in July and the production will travel to Glasgow Cathedral in September.

‘There have been various claims to her story, but never in her own words,’ says Glasgow-born, Fife-based Sharp. Yet Thaney’s voice is set to reverberate in venues encountering her contemporary visage. ‘We meet her in triple form,’ says Sharp: as Maiden, a young exiled girl played by Israela Efomi; as Mother (Taylor Dyson) ‘making sense of things at Culross’; and as Mage (Fletcher Mathers and Heather Cochrane taking the roles in separate productions) ‘setting the record straight in Glasgow.’ 

Threefold too is the linguistic weave: the text combines English, Scots and Gaelic as a confluence of language, culture, time and place. Dispelling history-play tropes, Sharp’s protagonist slips in and out of contemporary speech, becoming ‘a guide for the times we’re in, rising against violence and abuses of power.’ Community engagement is key to the project and curated work from participants can be explored at both performances in Thaney’s Haven: Stories Of Refuge And Recovery, Sharp’s initiative with women’s groups in East Lothian, Fife and Glasgow, in partnership with Historic Environment Scotland. 

Maiden, Mother, Mage, Culross Abbey, Thursday 17–Saturday 19 July; Glasgow Cathedral, Thursday 18 September.