Outlandsh desires and high drama

Published Oct 30, 2014

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The pages of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander are brought to dramatic life in Ronald Moore’s TV series. It offers a melting pot of time travel, history, romance, mystery, fantasy, politics, adventure and war. Irish actress Caitriona Balfe, cast as strong-willed heroine, |Claire Beuchamp Randall/Fraser, finds herself engulfed in two consuming love stories – albeit in different centuries – in the Scottish Highlands, writes Debashine Thangevelo.

WHILE shows in the comedy, police drama and reality genres continue to proliferate on the small screen, period piece offerings are more lopsided in their frequency.

Of late, fans have become utterly besotted with award-winning offerings like Boardwalk Empire, Mr Selfridge and Downton Abbey.

For viewers that appreciate shows that belong to a similar stable, Outlander resides up there with the best of them.

This masterfully-woven tale, which is adapted from Diana Gabaldon’s novels, unfolds during 20th and 18th century Scotland.

The romance begins in 1945. Claire Randall (Caitriona Balfe), a World War II combat nurse, is revelling in finally getting some down time with her teacher husband Frank Randall (Tobias Menzies, who also stars as Jonathan “Black Jack” Randall in the earlier time period) in the picturesque milieu of Inverness, Scotland.

During their stay, Frank decides to delve into his ancestry and, during his exploration, Claire encounters a clairvoyant, who unsettles her with her reading.

While she fobs off that feeling of foreboding, it returns with a vengeance after she and her husband secretly observe a modern-day Druid ritual. Not long after, Claire finds herself trapped in the nucleus of a battlefield between the Redcoats and Highlander insurgents. Even worse, she is a foreigner in the 18th century.

As she is cornered and about to be raped by the Captain of His Majesty’s Dragoons, she is rescued by a Highlander. But her safety is relative given the circumstances.

From the wardrobe to the hair and mannerisms, Balfe leaves little room for criticism of her depiction.

On being the anchor of this series, she shares, “What I loved about her is that she is never a victim. She is very intelligent. She just seizes every opportunity to live in whatever circumstances she finds herself in. Doing research on her and kind of filling her back story in, you have this sort of tragic event that happened to her when she was seven years old. She went and lived with her uncle and travelled the world…

“She constantly makes the best of every situation. She went through the Second World War, but that didn’t break her spirit. Instead, she was hands-on and made the most of it. And when she finds herself in the 1700s, she does not break. She does not mope. Instead, it invigorates her, and she uses every opportunity to figure her way out of, well, how is she going to survive? How is she going to get back to the stones? She is just incredibly resilient.”

What’s also most commendable about Outlander is the ingenious script and character development. More so, with the conflicts that arise from Claire finding herself adjusting to a world where women can’t challenge the patriarchal pecking order. And her spirited nature and foul-language is received with a measure of intrigue and frustration.

Talking to Claire’s conflicted state as she grows increasingly drawn to Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan), whom she helps with a dislocated arm followed by a shotgun wound, the actress responds, “I think most people have been at a point in their lives where they have maybe been torn between two people. So that concept isn’t that difficult. But what do you do when someone’s in a completely different time, and they haven’t even been born yet? In the book, the Frank story is not as elaborated upon and I love that we have actually done so. You see Frank and Claire try to put their marriage together after the war. That gives us this really strong sense of what she’s lost. In a way, she is torn between two sides of herself.”

That said, Frank taps into her intellectual and modern side, while Jamie unleashes this wild and passionate person.

As for the mythological undertones, she notes, “Claire is sort of cynical. She comes to Inverness and hears all these stories about old folklore and Frank and her go to see this Druidic ritual at the Standing Stones. Initially, she thinks it’s all kind of very sweet and sentimental.”

Interestingly, while she grew up speaking Gaelic in Ireland, the Scottish Gaelic bore a familiarity but not proficiency for her.

While much of the dialogue in the 1700s is in Gaelic, it is mixed with English too.

Scottish actor Heughan gives an overview of his character.

He says, “Jamie is a very loyal man. He’s a man of his time yet he’s very forward thinking. He has been brought up a certain way, you know, in the 1700s they had their own moral values; they had their own way of disciplining people; but he has travelled a lot. And I think that’s the relationship he has with Claire that even though he’s a man of his time and has a certain way of living, she teaches him to be slightly more modern. And he also teaches her. It’s that sort of relationship. They teach each other. And he’s a man of many layers. He is very careful, but, at times, can also be quite rash.”

Expanding on the link between Clan MacKenzie and their relationship to the Fraser Clan, the actor offers, “Jamie’s mother was obviously the sister of Colum and Dougal. So she’s a MacKenzie and she married “Black Brian” who’s a Fraser. The Frasers were a clan very close to the MacKenzies; like everything up in the highlands and the clans, it all depended on who you’re speaking to and what was going on at the time. And there certainly are points in the show where the MacKenzies side with their own and the Frasers side with their own; and certainly throughout the show… that can cause problems.”

Best known for his roles as Brutus in Rome and Edmure Tully in Game of Thrones, Menzies portrays an interesting juggling act between being a doting, chivalrous husband and inhabiting this dark and rather contemptible soldier.

He shares, “Well, being English, it’s quite possible I do have ancestors that might have been involved in some of the nastier bits of Scottish history. So yes, I think it’s one of the slightly more intriguing bits of the story really. That search to find out where you might have come from and where is home. It’s one of the major themes of the piece. And yes, I think Claire meeting this person that she’s only heard of in these dry historical documents is a shocking moment”

Menzies continues, “Yes. Jack is very much a pre-modern man and that has its challenges. You know, we are surrounded by technology and computers and phones, and so you have to try to imagine yourself in a world without any of that. And then juxtapose that with someone who is at the end of the First World War and actually living during a period of huge technological growth. This has been one of the challenges of doing this project – to have those two different kinds of outlooks and juxtapose them, play between them. I hope the consciousness of that comes across.”

Outlander is forceful for a myriad reasons. The costumes beautifully complement the eras, magnifying the difference in tone and tension. Casting is another crucial weapon in the director’s artillery. The actors play their roles with remarkable gravitas – especially in bringing to life the minutiae of their characters’ traits.

If a book whets the imagination, then this series certainly trans-cends that. It takes the art of storytelling to praiseworthy levels.

Bottom line – you are either going to love Outlander or loathe it, there’s no fence-sitting on this one.

• Outlander airs on M-Net Edge (DStv channel 102) on Thursdays at 8pm.

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