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CULTURE • LITERATURE • ART • EVENTS • MUSIC • MUSEUMS...
Getting a
look behind
the scenes
Who Killed
My Father
Where the real work is at the Conservation Hangar
By UNA PURDIESURROGATE ARE delighted to bring
Who Killed My Father (Qui a tué mon
père) back to Scottish stages in 2023,
following a critically acclaimed, sell out
debut at the Tron Theatre in 2022.
It tells the story of Édouard (Michel
Marcus) who endured the violence and
homophobia of his father, a factory
worker with right-wing views, while
growing up in a small town in France.
In 2000 his father suffered an accident
in the workplace which left him
bedbound. Édouard confronts his father
who, at barely fifty years old, can hardly
walk or breathe, and uncovers a startling
connection between political decisionsand his father’s broken body. Édouard’s
anger transforms to compassion.
His father’s capacity for violence
appears to be the product of years of
social brutality.
Based on the book by Édouard Louis,
translated by Lorin Stein, the play is
directed by Edinburgh-born theatre-
maker Nora Wardell who founded
Surrogate in 2019. The company’s work is
playful and emotional, with the ‘live’
relationship between actor and audience
at its heart. It seeks to create new
dramatic forms that ask urgent questions
about our world today.Catch Who Killed My Father at the Traverse
Theatre on Thursday May 11 at 8pm.By OLIVIA THOMASTHE NATIONAL Museum of Flight is opening
up its Conservation Hangar to show more
about the work carried out at East Fortune
before an item is displayed.
The huge Second World War aircraft hangar
is where the real work is carried out behind its
huge sliding doors. On a tour visitors will see
inside the hangar and view a large number of
aircraft and other objects which are not yet
on display.
The size of the objects the conservation team
work on is huge and can present challenges. A
1966 Buccaneer jet designed to land on an
aircraft carrier currently sits in the hangar with
its huge wings folded like a bird’s.
But each exhibit must tell its own story and
that can take an amount of research into its
history. There was a logistical problem in
getting the Polaris missile moved around. It is
12.6 tonnes and is currently in the
Conservation Hangar where it is sitting on railsso that it does not break the floor underneath.
As well as working on new items the team
also maintains aircraft such as the 1963 Avro
Vulcan bomber, the 1952 de Havilland Comet
and the 1968 British Airways BAC-11 which
form part of the outdoor aviation displays at
the Museum.
Steve McLean, General Manager at the
National Museum of Flight, said: “The new
tours offer a unique insight into the specialised
work carried out by our conservation team as
they preserve and maintain our collections and
help us to tell the story of flight and our rich
aviation heritage. We’re looking forward to
sharing this with visitors and to showing them
some of the amazing aircraft and objects not
normally on display, each of which has a
remarkable history and provides a fascinating
way to learn about our past.”
Spaces on the National Museum of Flight’s
Conservation Hangar tours are limited and can
be booked via the National Museums Scotland
website or on-site (subject to availability).Curator Ian Brown
on the wing of
an old Percival
Provost aircraft