The Rhum Plants with Mallory: Beyond Everest

The Rhum Plants by Phil Baarda

During the 1940s, the British botanical elite were increasingly sceptical of the huge number of rare plants working- class Professor Heslop Harrison was finding on the island of Rum, and despatch classicist and amateur botanist, John Raven, to investigate.

What appears to be simple case of distinguishing truth from fraud becomes a back-biting tale of scientific elitism and one-upmanship, where class, ambition, arrogance and thwarted love have as much to play as botanical integrity.

The Rhum Plants is a humorous and engaging re-telling of real events that continue to reverberate in scientific circles today. It was presented by the new Inverness-based theatre company Mangonel during the Play Pieces lunchtime theatre programme in September 2014 to great acclaim and full houses.

Suitable for all the family (not for young children)

This performance is part of a double bill with Mallory: Beyond Everest starting at 7.30pm.

George Mallory and Sandy Irvine vanished into the mist high on Everest in 1924 – and were never seen alive again. Were they the first men to climb the world’s highest mountain? In this dramatic one-man play John Burns asks one question: if George Mallory had survived what demons would have haunted him?

‘a fast-paced comedy… from the dry seed of botanical fraud’  What’s On North

‘the cast of four’s massively energetic performances … decked out in white long-johns and moustaches held on by elastic’  What’s On North