Family Fugue
‘Both funny and beautiful, which is rare’
Bella Marrin, Fieldnotes Journal
A film about how we are haunted by, and in turn haunt our ancestors, and a family who cannot agree on how to tell their own story.
Family Fugue is a chase in three movements with a white snake, a red Duchess and a golden boy. It spans eight centuries and starts in a cave, featuring performances from multiple members of the Ramsay family.
Beginning with the family's origin story of Neish de Ramsay, a 13th century wizard who was said to have cured king Alexander II of Scotland using a potion from a white snake; it continues with Katherine Stewart Murray, Duchess of Atholl, a trailblazing female MP in the early 20th century who fell out of politics because she vocally opposed fascism; and concludes with David Ramsay, a polymath prankster whose life was terminated abruptly during action in World War II, suggesting his death was not final.
Playing with these histories as a score to be interpreted, using documentary, reenactment and lush theatrical tableau, the film allows disagreement, criticism and self doubt to flow in and out.
‘Life is not the wick, nor the candle, it is the burning’
Katherine Stewart Murray
