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Rapid Departure – A Review By Duncan Harley

Aberdeenshire, Featured, Opinion No Responses »

Jun 082015

By Duncan Harley

The premise of Rapid Departure, the latest touring production by Moray-based Right Lines Productions is quite simple.

Environmental calamities are on the increase and extreme weather conditions can arise at any moment.

The surrounding area has been hit by a freak flood and the locals, aka the audience, are guided to the safety of the Boganlochan Village Hall, the designated Emergency Rest Centre.

The local council take charge of the crisis in the person of part-time seasonal grass strimmer Eric, played by Ewan Donald of River City fame. As the flood waters rise, so questions arise.

How would we all cope with such a fraught situation? Does this style of interactive theatre engage the audience? Will our hero save the locals from a watery end?

If the audience reviews are anything to go by, the production has hit a high note.

At the Kemnay Village Hall performance, audience feedback included the following:

“Fab – loved it!! Great cast and writing. Even made the teenagers laugh! Would make a great BBC special.”

“A fab night. Pure genius. Great script, great acting and great singing. Well done Euan & Dave.”

In all honesty, this production is a delight from beginning to end. At the Kemnay performance word must have gotten around that there would be a degree of audience participation and the front seats visibly filled up last. But no matter: no one was safe! In a series of hilarious but gentle audience engagements, the mail was delivered, food was distributed and sandbags given out. At points there was literally not a dry eye in the house!

Sing-along renderings of You Are My Sunshine and The Muckle Spate of 63 added to the fun, and within the first few minutes it was clear that a real treat was in store.

Rapid Departure is of course the latest production by Moray-based Right Lines Productions, the team responsible for theatrical comedies such as Who Bares Wins and The Accidental Death of an Accordionist.

Following rehearsals and an opening night on Eigg, the 90-minute production toured venues as far afield as Knoydart, Portmahomack and Fochabers, before swinging south to Kemnay, Pitlochry and finally Birnam.

Directed by Mark Saunders, whose professional career includes full-time lecturing at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, the production’s key elements of seriously educational farce are expertly exploited. Writers Dave Smith and Euan Martin’s script intended that a drama be made out of a crisis and that is exactly what Mark has delivered!

Estrid Barton is no stranger to Right Lines. She played Trish in the hit Pitlochry Festival Theatre production of Whisky Kisses. In her Rapid Departure role as the community-spirited Gloria, she amply sets the scene from the very start, and adds a confident comedic presence to the
show.

Alongside Albert, played by James Bryce, who with over a hundred plays under his hat also wrote the music for the show, Flora, played by Helen MacKay deserves special mention; not least for her dramatic entrance and mid-show white water puppet performance.

A veteran of The Cone Gatherers and Sunset Song, her vibrant and bright stage presence added much-needed positivity to the inhabitants of the Boganlochan Emergency Rest Centre audience, just when the weather seemed to be taking a turn for the worse.

As the arguments about global warming, re-wilding, renewable energy and of course the impact of flooding flow back and forth, Barry Hunter’s impressive macho presence as Connal borders at times on the Crocodile Dundee. The butt of many jokes, his vying with Eric for the affections of young Flora works well in the context of the central themes of the play.

With ultra realistic sound effects including rolls of thunder plus a truly memorable soup scene complete with a Paul Hogan-style big knife, Rapid Departure is a hilariously educational touring theatre production not to be missed.

True to form, Right Lines have triumphed yet again.

To check whether Rapid Departures is playing at a village hall near you see

http://rightlines.net/rightlines/rapid-departure/

Tickets from www.neatshows.org.uk

Words and images © Duncan Harley

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War And Peace In The Denburn Valley: A Review

Aberdeen City, Featured, Opinion 1 Response »

May 222015

David Innes reviews Diane Morgan’s Aberdeen’s Union Terrace Gardens – War and Peace in the Denburn Valley.

One of Aberdeen’s finest vistas is the 270 degree panorama of the northern city centre visible from the comfort of His Majesty’s Theatre’s glass extension, not uncontroversial itself as an architectural development.

Robert Gordon’s College, Cowdray Hall and its War Memorial, the Triple Kirks’ sadly-neglected but worthy brick spire, the beautifully-restored Belmont Street buildings, the impressive traffic-swallowing jaws of Union Bridge and Union Terrace’s imposing geometric granite facades can all be taken in with little more than a single swivel of the head.

In any weather, the view warms the heart of those with a love of sympathetic, integrated urban development. It defines Aberdeen.

At its centre is Union Terrace Gardens, the floor of the Denburn Valley, its greenness contrasting yet complementing the stark beauty of native granite.

Who would think that such an unimposing but beauteous defile would have caused controversy for centuries during its development, and very recent real conflict as its future divided opinion and caused lasting damage to political and even personal relationships in Aberdeen?

Diane Morgan is meticulous in her narration of the controversies that have surrounded the Valley’s development since its days as a bleaching green on the banks of the burn between Mutton Brae and Corbie Heugh.

As in her previous essential heritage volumes, she brings history to life, as if James Matthews and James Forbes, early pioneers of the Gardens’ development, are flitting in and out of the pages along with the original occupants of Union Terrace as that grand avenue’s status grew from tenemented cul de sac to become a highly-desirable residential and commercial location.

Conflicts are not new, we discover. Arguments over railway routes, disputed hotel names, kirk developments, bridges, Denburn Viaduct and even the trend for placement of inappropriate city artefacts in the Gardens, has seen the Denburn Valley a continual focus for debate and even rancour in the city. The current Dandara development on the Triple Kirks site means that controversy continues.

Of course, it is the recent divisive controversies that most will remember, and the author hands over to Mike Shepherd, the tireless former chairman of the Friends of Union Terrace Gardens, to examine in detail, and subsequently fillet, the business case for the City Square/City Garden Project, all the while displaying the emotional attachment that Aberdonians have for their Trainie Park.

Side-swiping at the mania for ‘connectivity’, Ms Morgan points out that Union Bridge and Denburn Viaduct have already solved issues with “the physical barrier of the Denburn Valley” which marks “the place where the new city took over from the medieval town”.

This is a superb perspective of the troubled history of Aberdeen’s centre, as impressive as the view from HMT.

Aberdeen’s Union Terrace Gardens War and Peace in the Denburn Valley by Diane Morgan
Black & White Publishing
ISBN 978-1-84502-494-9
238pp
£14.99

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Wicked At HMT – Duncan Harley Reviews

Aberdeen City, Featured, Opinion No Responses »

May 072015

Wicked UK & Ireland Tour. Photo by Matt Crockett

Wicked runs at HM Theatre Aberdeen until Saturday May 30th. Photo by Matt Crockett

By Duncan Harley.

In 1900, American writer Lyman Frank Baum introduced readers to a fantastical land filled with witches, munchkins and a girl named Dorothy from Kansas in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
He lived for a while in Aberdeen – Aberdeen South Dakota that is – and went on to write 13 more Oz books before his death in 1919.

His stories, which continue to fascinate audiences to this day, have formed the basis for popular films such as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s 1939 The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland and Disney’s 1985 Return to Oz.

Even The Muppets got in on the act in 2005 with Miss Piggy playing all the witches in The Muppets Wizard of Oz.

Writers as diverse as Stephen King and Alexander Volkov have penned alternate versions of the original Frank Baum stories and in 1995 writer Gregory McGuire added The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West to the tribute list.

Based on Winnie Holzman’s adaptation of McGuire’s novel, Wicked the musical opened on Broadway in September 2003 and tells the back-story of what happened before Judy Garland’s gingham clad Kansas dreamer Dorothy followed the Yellow Brick Road.

Essentially, the story follows the ups and downs of the self obsessed Glinda (Emily Tierney – Kate Modern and West Side Story in Concert) and the green tinged Elphaba (Ashleigh Gray – Susan Boyle in Concert and NHS The Musical) who meet at the Hogwart-like Shiz University for Sorcerers in Gilikan, the Northern Province of the Land of Oz.

The two wizardly undergraduates vie for the Adonis like charms of Fiyero (Samuel Edwards – Robin Hood and Les Miserables) and come under the spell of Steven Pinder the seemingly not so powerful, Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

On one level a dark tale of the West’s fear of alien cultures emerges as the animal kingdom of Oz is suppressed but as the gags proceed at a pace, the theatre audience are led willingly into the feel good, or on occasion feel bad, land of munchkins and flying homesteads.

The toe tapping dance routines are spellbinding and Stephen Schwartz’s music and lyrics move the story forward effortlessly. The origins of the Tin Man, the Scarecrow and The Lion are effortlessly explained and despite a distinct lack of Dorothy Gale, this is after all a prequel, frequent references to shoes and hurricanes keep the future heroine distinctly in the wings.

Of particular note is the powerful performance of Marilyn Cutts as Madame Morrible, the headmistress of Shiz.

Conspicuously evil and named with the all the comic subtlety of a steam hammer the role is superbly played by a seasoned actor who effortlessly takes girl power to its logical extreme.

Packed to the brim with technical wizardry and special effects, Wicked is also packed with enough show-stopping songs such as Defying Gravity and March of the Witch Hunters to satisfy the most ardent musical fan.

Throw in a few flying monkeys, a munchkin or two plus a cute cuddly lion cub and you have an enchantingly spellbinding show.

Wicked runs at HM Theatre Aberdeen until Saturday May 30th.

Tickets from Aberdeen Performing Arts Tel: 01224- 641122

Words © Duncan Harley, Images © Matt Crockett

Wire: Live Wires Live

Aberdeen City, Featured, Opinion No Responses »

May 012015

Lemon Tree 26 April 2015; it’s been snowing, most people are cancelling their plans to stay home and be warm. The result is an audience size below what was expected for Wire. But completely undaunted and unphased, they air their new album Wire to Aberdeen’s hardcore, devoted live music fans. Suzanne Kelly reports. Pictures by Dod Morrison.

I wish I’d stayed until the end. I wish I’d stayed until the end. Having to leave this show early is a huge regret a week later.

With a new album to promote, long-running, ever-evolving punk/art/rock act Wire played a, well – sweet and strong set to an audience that loved it.

The Lemon Tree was not packed, but almost everyone I’d ever met in Aberdeen who loves music was there.

One proud fan had bought everything the merchandise stall had to offer. A beautiful silver foil on black poster, signed by Wire, was his prized possession.

The geometric graphic was composed of many smaller elements making a striking, elegant, strong overall design. And that’s kind of how I see their music as well. Complex, perfectly executed percussion layered with bass, guitar and vocals combine; and rock-solid, cohesive and compelling music is the result.

As another person who loved the show said:

“they’re artists; this is art.”

Wire formed around 1976 and today are Colin Newman (vocals, acoustic guitar , electric guitar, keyboards, and more); Graham Lewis (bass, effects, keyboards, vocals, backing vocals); Robert Grey (drums) and since 2012 or so Matt Simms (electric guitar, 12-string electric guitar, lap steel guitar, effects, keyboards)

Of this new album they’ve said:

“Their 13th studio album — simply titled ‘Wire’— comprises material that was written with the album in mind, but toured extensively first, as well as songs that Newman introduced to the group in the studio just prior to recording.

“The idea was to get the most spontaneous reaction possible from the musicians, and far from the rough and ready results one might expect from such a tack, Wire is full of swooning pop melodies with a ’60s tinge and an irresistible, near motorik rhythmic momentum. One can recognise certain melodic inflections, guitar and bass motifs, and drum rhythms from Wire’s idiosyncratic vocabulary but it has a remarkable freshness.”
http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/2015/02/12/wire-new-album-tour-dates/

The new guitarist Simms in particular seems to be enjoying himself and is smiling at his bandmates and the crowd; other than that the rest of the act seems focused on every note. I wonder how they’re feeling: it’s the end of the UK tour; it’s Sunday night; it’s snowing; they’re probably shattered. But they’re here and we’re glad of it.

A sound engineer is darting all over the place; some said as I left the vocals could have been higher in the mix and brighter, but I’ve no complaints myself.

No point in pretending I know what the new songs were or what the complete set list is. (If someone out there wants to share the set list, please do weigh in). What I did hear was infectious and beautifully delivered. Know the names of the songs? I wasn’t sure whether I was in the 1980s 90s or the future. But I liked it a lot.

If you want a sample, here is Joust & Jostle.

I’d not previewed the new album; this show was mainly dedicated to tracks from this their 13th album, the self-titled ‘Wire’. As my friend said later:

“They’ve finally put out an album named ‘Wire’ – its brilliant, it IS Wire.”

I find them crisp, smart, sharp; the drummer is absolutely amazing; at one point I’m not at all sure how Simms is getting his guitar to create the most amazing sounds; I’m a bit mesmerised by this and several other passages.

My phone’s SoundHound app didn’t recognise any of the new pieces, which I thought I’d try for a variety of reasons; but I was far too busy listening to them to worry about it. But I’m sure that once this album’s been properly launched, everyone, even SoundHound will be familiar with this impressive new material. Aside from the people who came and stood directly in front of me after the third song and didn’t’ stop talking once, it was a gripped and attentive audience.

By the time this review is out, the UK tour will have finished; the band will tour the US in May. If you can’t get there, I’d get the album.

Is it punk? Is it new wave? Is it PostPunk? Is it electronica? Is it rock? Yes. And I’d like more of it.

Album and Wire info here: http://www.pinkflag.com/

Gerry Jablonski Band: No Trouble With These Blues.

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Apr 172015

Trouble With The Blues is the fourth album from the Gerry Jablonski Band. It’s a classic compendium racing up and down the full spectrum of The Blues, and it’s absolutely cracking. Suzanne Kelly stops listening to it long enough to review.

The Gerry Jablonski Band has come up with their best album yet, although it’s not as if they’ve released any flawed albums before. Twist of Fate, their last album was rightly well received.

But on Trouble With The Blues, the high production values, writing, playing, solos and vocals have reached new, highly-gelled heights. My first initial reaction is that I must see them do this material live as soon as possible.

The lyrics run from playful, for example in ‘The Curse’, to heartbreakingly raw and painful.

This emotion comes in no small measure from the sad passing of the band’s long-standing percussionist Dave Innes, who tragically passed away one year ago after illness. The last piece, ‘I Confess’ puts me in mind of Hamlet’s famous soliloquy which painfully questions existence; if you hear the song, you’ll perhaps take my meaning.

In ‘I Confess’, the lyrics are initially filled with sorrow:

“I never felt this way before until my friend passed away”

– as direct and crushing as a lyric can get. As it reaches a crescendo, the lyrics increasingly expose more raw pain, self-contempt and anger mirrored in the poignant vocals. All the while the guitar grows correspondingly louder and more insistent.

It’s cathartic for anyone who’s had such a loss; such a person will identify with this song and likewise be moved. It’s incredibly honest, as is ‘Anybody.’

‘Anybody’ is also a mournful, classic blues. Clapton would have been happy to have come up with this song. The instrumentals are minimal, while Jablonski sings

“I’m only human after all. I’ve been through my changes; don’t know which way to turn. All my friends are doing fine. So somebody, could be anybody, take me to the light.”

People are going to be singing along to this when they hear it live, I guarantee it. The only thing I’d say is that this sweet song is one I could imagine with a gospel choir on the chorus towards the end; i.e. the ‘Under The Bridge’ effect if you will. But other than that suggestion, I’ve no fault to find with this accomplished album.

Jablonski’s voice has never been in better form; the guitar work, and especially the guitar solos have also taken things up a notch. The title track ‘Trouble with the Blues’ has a scorcher of a solo, for instance.

But this album is a group effort, a team production. The entire band shares the song writing credits. There are polished bass lines and funky bass solos: ‘Trouble With The Blues’ has a great solo. Once again Peter Peter Narojczyk’s harmonica work is versatile, polished, expressive; Jerry Portnoy would approve. Lewis Fraser is now on the drums. He’s done a brilliant piece of work on this album. Mr Innes would approve.

I’ve dwelt on two melancholy, soul-baring tracks so far; but ultimately this album is celebratory. ‘Lady & I’ is upbeat and sassy; ‘The Curse’ is great fun. Then again so is ‘Fork Fed Dog’ – down, dirty, fun. I can imagine sets opening with this high-voltage track. It’s a tremendous track and I look forward to experiencing it live. ‘Big Bad World’ is a nice sharp bit of social commentary and a good showplace for Narojczyk, with a short but sharp Jablonski solo.

Live dates are indeed coming; for more information on this album and where to catch the Gerry Jablonski band, see the website here: www.gerryjablonskiband.com . I also understand that a video is forthcoming, shot at least in part in Aberdeen’s D-Range recording studio.

There is a great deal of debate in Aberdeen now about what is or is not culture, and what Aberdeen’s greatest cultural assets are. This album is as strong a hint as you can possibly get on that score.

This is not a piece of work to listen to once and forget; it will be going on your iPod and going where you go.

Having seen their Facebook updates during the project, and how happy they were to be at Abbey Road, I must say I’m very happy they’ve come out with such a strong, varied, memorable work. Nice work, gentlemen.

A Night In The Mooring s With Joe Lynn Turner

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Apr 102015

The Moorings continues to bring acts to Aberdeen which command attention. Joe Lynn Turner’s not-to-be missed acoustic evening was something else again. Suzanne Kelly reports; photos by Still Burning – aka Julie Thompson and George Mackie.

If you were of a certain age, and living in the US, you loved rock and metal. Particularly English metal.

Every guy wanted to be in a band; some great musicians came out of the 70s in the US. UK bands filled giant arenas and played to capacity crowds. Led Zeppelin reigned supreme (and for many of us still does, not least with the re-release of Physical Graffiti on its 40th anniversary – but I digress).

If you worked at it long and hard, you became a halfway credible guitarist.

If nature had particularly gifted you and you worked at it, you could sing passably. If you could play remarkably well, had a perfect voice for rock, and could write, then you could only be Joe Lynn Turner.

This was the guy from New Jersey who joined Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow for much of the 80s and was on Deep Purple’s Slaves & Masters.

This guy from New Jersey who played to tens of thousands in stadiums invited us to have a nice, warm intimate show at the Moorings. And we loved it.

JLT is touring; it’s an acoustic show with two other guitarists. Being able to hear music stripped down to an acoustic essence is a good way to figure out if you’re just listening to someone who can deliver a few power chords via some distorting electronics or someone who can play with some subtlety and skill.

I dare say he’d won us over before he was through the first few measures of his opening piece ‘Stone Cold.’ He finishes, tells us he ‘looks like a criminal’ under the bright lights, and asks us to just shout out any questions as he goes along.

He then tells us about a recurring dream and a face that haunted him – and ‘Street of Dreams’ is next. People have brought along their treasured memorabilia; he promises to sign these later. Soon he mentions Ronnie James Dio and sings Catch The Rainbow.

He’s doing material that showcases his considerable gifts. He’s taken tracks from Slaves & Masters; he’s covered the Beatles’ Blackbird and When I Saw Her Standing There; he’s done Van Morrison.

This night is more like hanging around with your friend who plays guitar, as you talk.

I’d never imagined this would turn out to be such a warm, friendly, down-to-earth evening – but it gets even more so.

We wind our way to the last few songs. Deep Purple’s Hush is near the end; and by now most of us are singing. But as the show nears its end, we get the extraordinary treat of an acoustic Smoke On The Water. I’ve seen Flash in the room; he’s grinning from ear to ear. I think that every single person was singing along. Remembering this moment makes me want to sing it aloud again now.

He’s off; he explains the band have an early plane to catch. All I can say is thanks for a great evening, and if you find out that Joe Lynn Turner is heading your way, I’d suggest you get there.

On a personal note.

I never thought I’d see a show quite like this; JLT virtually made a friend of everyone there. When he mentioned Ronnie James Dio, I was catapulted back to the late 70s when groups like Elf, The Rods and The Numbers were swelling up in Dio’s hometown, and the impression they made on me then which lingers.

Somewhere I have an old cassette tape (is there any other kind?) of Dio singing before he broke big. I must find that tape.

Saving Private Fury? Dave Watt Reviews

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Apr 032015

I watched Fury (Saving Private Ryan with Tanks) starring Brad Pitt as something of a howling sh*t tank commander at the weekend and while the CFG special effects were great and the tension sky-high the plotline was distinctly iffy, opines ‘Voice’s Dave Watt.

The Better Educated Young White Middle Class Hero Who Usually Survives in a Hollywood Movie – like Corporal Upham in ‘Saving Private Ryan’ or Corporal Sledge in ‘Pacific’ he is the team intellectual who, in this case, is thrown into a tank crew having been a clerk for eight weeks.

He has never been in a tank before and he is the assistant driver?

There are no expendable ex-elementary school infantrymen who would be glad of an internal transfer?

Come on, if you’re that determined to waste a qualified clerk at least put him in the infantry where he can step on a Schu-mine and clear the way for a real infantryman. Play the game, HR.

The Crew – You simply don’t have to behave like Bluto to be part of a Tank crew. It’s not necessary to be eight foot high and covered in red hair with attitude – you’re in a metal tank with a 3″ thick armour and a 76mm gun for God’s sake!

You might as well be a shy, unassuming, five foot three trainee librarian with an interest in macrame. Perhaps the screenwriter found a couple of old Sven Hassel paperbacks holding up a table leg somewhere. Who knows.

I don’t know if tank crews in the Yank army really behaved in this posturing macho fashion towards new crewmen but British ones certainly didn’t if WWII tank crew like celebrated author Ken Tout and Michael Green (author of the Coarse Rugby books) are anything to go by.

Needless to say, following the approved Stephen Spielberg formula, as the film goes on the crew become a lot nicer and border on the maudlin and the downright mawkish if not schmaltzy by the end.

Bluto encounters a Tiger tank – Even at this stage of the war the German tankies were doing a minimum twenty week training course and the cardinal rule which would have been drummed into them every day since 1940 would be – ‘You do not fire when you are moving’.

1) The Tiger – opens fire and promptly brews up Tank #2

Brad Pitt orders the rest to put smoke down in front of the Tiger.

2) Bearing in mind the Tiger has the Shermans considerably outranged it has three choices :

a) Move back a couple of hundred yards behind the smoke and wait for the shooting gallery to appear through the smoke (best)
b) Stay where it is and wait for the shooting gallery to appear through the smoke (next best)
c) Advance through the smoke and fire while moving while reducing the firefight to a melee. (absolutely the worst – and because it’s Hollywood, what the Tiger does).

The mission – the tank squadron is ordered to guard a crossroads with no infantry, artillery or air support. Unusual. Very unusual as it’s April 1945 and by this point the Allies have air and artillery support coming out of their ears. However, by the time the tanks get to the crossroads there is, courtesy of the Tiger, only Pitt’s tank left which promptly runs on to a solitary mine.

Finding that they are about to be attacked by a battalion of SS infantry (apparently SS infantry Uruk-Hai as they didn’t seem to mind casualties one little bit) and only having the disabled tank the crew sensibly decide to vote with their feet before Brad shames them into staying.

Bugger the fact that it’s April 1945, what’s left of the German army is totally screwed in the west, the Soviets are in the suburbs of Berlin and this will make very little difference to the outcome of the war anyway. Brad does his High Noon shtick and the crew actually decide to stay, the idiots.

I remember once being in an office and (being the only ex-serviceman in the place) a guy had seen some film that involved some John Wayne type figure asking for volunteers for the heroic rearguard and him asking me if that was the case in real life and myself bursting into rather coarse laughter with the equally coarse words “F**k me, they wouldn’t get many fu**ing volunteers”, and pointing out that your unit would simply detailed as rearguard by the commanding general and your views on the matter were not generally canvassed.

Hollywood has a lot to answer for.

Anyway the SS Uruk-Hai repeatedly charge up to the disabled tank and are shot down in droves but eventually they overrun it and almost everyone dies heroically but quite picturesquely considering the mayhem which has preceded it. The exception is the young intellectual who presumably goes on to live a full and happy life teaching Ethics at Illinois University.

Roll credits.

For the benefit of those who may want to climb on their high horse and say I’m dissing WW2 tank crews – it’s okay, it’s only a film.

However, I sat inside various Chieftains courtesy of Four Guards Armoured in my army days and thanked various dieties that I was in the Signals. You can’t see a bloody thing from inside a tank and if you are a tankie you’re always convinced there’s some bugger farting around under your armpit with an RPG-7. Not good.

For further reading – see a surprisingly good article in the Telegraph.

The Full Monty – Some Bare Cheek At HMT Aberdeen

Aberdeen City, Opinion No Responses »

Mar 312015

The Full Monty at HMT. A review by Duncan Harley.

It was clearly only a matter of time before this tale of missing trousers came to the Aberdeen stage.

Is it a mere tribute to the film, or is the stage production of Simon Beaufoy’s award-winning screenplay breaking new ground?

The story explores the issues faced by a group of laid-off steelworkers. The steel mill has closed and the de-skilled men have been chucked on the scrap heap.

The government of the day has little to offer other than the so called Job Club. Impotence, poverty and despair are central themes.

Even suicide by hanging is an option, and in a slapstick but shocking scene the audience are forced to make a decision as to whether to laugh or cry!

Of course it’s all metaphorical. The shedding of clothes in the Chippendale scenes reflects the claiming back of dignity and the casting off of the impotence of mass unemployment. The hanging scene where Bobby Schofield’s Lomper is first rescued, then abandoned, before being taken into the fold reflects on issues to do with the uncertainties of celibacy.

The spectre of a female peeing up against a wall not only challenges gender beliefs, but also further emasculates the jobless men. She has a role to play and they don’t.

At points the lampooning of Thatcherite Britain resembles a Donald McGill seaside postcard and there were cracks. Kate Wood’s Linda was a case in point. Despite her best efforts, the characterisation appeared slightly wooden, and the dialogue disappointingly sparse. Kate’s high spirited Bee and Annie more than made up for this.

In the big scheme of things however this is a superb production. Beside the political moralising the entertainment value shines through. With feelgood galore, plus one of the funniest hanging scenes ever performed on an Aberdeen stage, this hilarious tale of willy waggling in the industrial heartland of England had the audience in stitches from start to finish.

Directed by Roger Haines – Cabaret, Godspell and Driving Miss Daisy – and with choreography by Ian West – The Dog Ate My Homework and The Blues Brothers – this is writer Simon Beaufoy’s first foray into writing for the stage, and he freely admits having to learn a whole new set of skills to make his original screenplay work in a theatrical space.

Of particular note was Brook Exley as Nathan. I have to date yet to see another young lead deliver so many lines so faultlessly.

With a stage set worthy of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis and pounding numbers such as Hot Chocolate’s ‘You Sexy Thing’ and the Tom Jones classic ‘You Can Leave Your Hat On’ you’ll get good entertainment value from The Full Monty.

The Full Monty plays at HM Theatre Aberdeen until Saturday 4th April.

Tickets from Aberdeen Performing Arts Tel: 01224- 641122

The Bodyguard At HMT – Duncan Harley Reviews

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Mar 202015

By Duncan Harley.

Bearing more than a passing resemblance to Akira Kurosawa’s 1961 epic screenplay Yojimbo, the plot of The Bodyguard – The Musical borrows heavily from the 1992 romantic cinematic thriller of the same name.
But does it deliver?

Ex-secret agent Frank Farmer – played by Stuart Reid – metaphorically wanders around the stage in pursuit of security work.

Having stumbled across the alien world of big time show business in the form of stalker threatened Rachel Marron (Alexandra Burke) he unwittingly tips the balance of power in Diva-land.

As the musical drama plays out on stage, this 21st century pistol toting samurai demonstrates both unyielding loyalty to his new show-biz employer and also a tender love interest towards her in a story line reminiscent of Yojimbo’s double edged game in Kurosawa’s post feudal Japan.

The dialogue scenes are cinematic both in perspective and in delivery and at times it is tempting to view the performance as simply a stage remake of Whitney Houston’s Academy Award winning Hollywood acting debut.

This is, after all, the musical of the film of the book and that in anyone’s script, is a hard place to be.

The fact that Lawrence Kasdan’s original screenplay had originally intended that Steve McQueen and Diana Ross co-star must make taking on the leading roles challenging at the very least. This combined with a thin script, in which the loyal but completely incompetent Frank exposes his charge to danger at every turn before finally taking a bullet for her, might well tempt even the most confident super-star to body swerve the production.

In many ways however, the plot is somewhat incidental and serves well as a vehicle for Alexandra Burke’s powerful delivery of the Whitney hits.

From the opening Queen of the Night to the curtain call I Wanna Dance With Somebody her richly silky contralto more than delivers. Unphased by those “big” songs it was clear even before she got to Dolly Parton’s I Will Always Love You that here was a star in the ascendancy. Add to this those glitzy costumes and commanding stage presence and you have a crowd-wower extraordinaire!

In sharp contrast, Stuart Reid’s aurally challenging singing performance in the karaoke-bar scene is intentionally painful. With an artistic pedigree including Mama Mia, Dancing at Lughnasa and Miracle on 34th Street he breezed through the humorously off-tune melody seamlessly.

Melissa James, as the sidelined sister Nicki Marron, neatly complements the successful, career- focused Rachel while The Stalker, played malevolently by Mike Denman, drew panto-like hisses from the audience almost as soon as he appeared on stage.

Young star Elliot Aubrey – Shine Like The Sun/Stanley Halls Theatre – shone as Fletcher. Delivering a strong and focused performance, he brought a genuine innocence to what is after all a dark and tragic tale.

With superb use of stage scenery and a host of spectacular special effects, The Bodyguard – The Musical looks as good as it sounds. Of particular note are the cleverly automated “camera shutter like” back drops. Musical Director Tom Gearing and the orchestra excelled.

Add into the mix an awesomely acrobatic dance ensemble worthy of Broadway and the audience really begins to rock!

All the classic numbers are here in one package which makes the musical a must see if you are a Whitney Houston fan and even more of a must see if you are a fan of Alexandra Burke.

The Bodyguard – The Musical plays at HM Theatre Aberdeen until Saturday 28th March.

Tickets from Aberdeen Performing Arts Tel: 01224- 641122

Scotland’s Cruel Sea: David Innes Reviews

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Mar 132015

By David Innes.

The recent Pentland Firth tragedy in which the Cemfjord was lost with all hands, demonstrates that no matter how sailing and marine technology improves, the treacherous Scottish coastline and our frequently-inhospitable weather refuse to be tamed.

45 years have elapsed since the twin tragic losses of lifeboats from Fraserburgh and Longhope and whilst technology and training have improved, there remains considerable scope for losses at sea.

In a clockwise circumnavigation of this coastline in Scotland’s Cruel Sea, Robert Jeffrey charts how along its entirety, marine disaster has befallen the unwary, the unprepared and the unlucky.

He recognises the bravery of those who have fought elements, waves, currents, rocks and fortune, be they mariners or rescuers.

He also tells of the frequent crass stupidity which saw seafarers ill-prepared for almost certain death – a steam-driven submarine with folding tunnels and multiple vents? You don’t need to make that up – it happened and is well-documented here.

Likewise, his exacting prose describes clearly how the Iolaire sank just outside Stornoway harbour on New Year’s Day 1919, with over 200 men, who had survived the brutality of The Great War, lost within sight of their homes, a tragedy that is still mourned in the Hebrides.

The Longhope lifeboat TGB, from which all crew were lost exactly 45 years ago on a mercy mission doomed to failure, was recovered intact, re-fitted and went on to serve for another ten years and 41 call-outs in Ireland. Who knew that?

He describes the June 1916 loss of the Hampshire as a harrowing experience for Britain, as Lord Kitchener was the most high-profile loss on Orkney’s west coast, in an ill-considered venture into a raging summer storm. The effect of Kitchener’s death, and the conspiracy theories it spawned, Jeffrey says, would be akin to the more contemporary deaths of John F Kennedy or Princess Diana.

Of most interest to Voice readers, of course, will be the marine losses affecting NE Scotland, including Piper Alpha which caused “collective shock” not only in the oil industry, but in the country and where the bereaved and survivors found it, “as difficult to extract fairness from the multinationals as it was to get the oil and gas to the surface”.

Linked to North Sea exploration, is the insightful chapter on Chinook and Super Puma ditchings and near misses along with a tribute to pilot skills which, Jeffrey points out, have prevented many more losses in extreme conditions.

The Tay Bridge collapse of Hogmanay 1879 also gets its own chapter and Jeffrey’s frustration is obvious as he tells of the forewarnings of structural instability, inappropriate train speeds and the fears of an ex-Provost of Dundee who would only travel southbound on the ill-fated structure. It’s a surprise to learn that the final death toll has never been enumerated and that the locomotive was recovered from the Tay and put back into service.

Scotland’s Cruel Sea is informative, sympathetic, cautionary and written so that non-technical readers can appreciate the issues behind the human suffering associated with our being an island race.

Scotland’s Cruel Sea by Robert Jeffrey.

Black & White Publishing
ISBN 978 I 84502 886 2
£9.99

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