Category: Mary Woodward Review

**** (4 stars)

“A wonderfully entertaining show”

Scottish Ballet’s Snow Queen showcases everything that makes the company’s productions so special and enjoyable: superb dancing to a live orchestra, a company of individuals rather than soloists with a faceless, homogenous corps, lively children’s participation and excellent storytelling.  It’s the perfect Christmas treat, and a splendid introduction to the world of ballet for anyone who doesn’t know anything about dance.

The Snow Queen lives in a far-distant ice palace with her sister, the Summer Princess.  They quarrel when the princess sees in the queen’s enchanted mirror a vision of herself embracing a young man.  She goes to find him, disguising herself as a young man, Lexi.  Her sister the queen is alone and furious: in her rage, she shatters the magic mirror.

Lexi is making her living as a pickpocket on the fringes of a busy town, using a shard of the magic mirror to protect herself.  One day she sees the young man of her vision: it’s Kai, but he’s in love with Gerda, and asks her to marry him.  Suddenly the action freezes: the Snow Queen arrives to ask Lexi to come back home.  When she refuses, the Queen blows dust from Lexi’s mirror shard into Kai’s eyes.  He becomes a frozen, heartless monster who repudiates Gerda.  A circus arrives and brings light, colour and fun into a drab urban scene: but a trick involving Kai goes wrong and he disappears, leaving Gerda alone and heartbroken.  She begs Lexi for help.

Gerda and Lexi arrive at the gypsy encampment, seeking help from Mazelda the fortune teller.  She tells Gerda that Kai is under the Snow Queen’s enchantment and he cannot be rescued.  Undaunted, Gerda sets off through the forest and, despite the best efforts of snow wolves, jackfrosts and snowflakes, reaches the ice palace.  Gerda tries unsuccessfully to remind Kai of their relationship.  The Snow Queen attacks her, and it’s only Lexi’s reappearance as the Summer Princess, ready to give up her freedom in exchange for Kai, that enables the young lovers to be reunited as Kai’s heart melts.

Overall, it was a very good performance, and much of the criticism I have is good.  In the opening village scene there’s so much going on that you can’t possibly see everything – and I really want to, because every dancer on stage is a living personality with an agenda of their own and I want to watch them all.   There’s so much going on that it’s easy to miss what Lexi’s doing – the trouble she gets into, the potential disasters narrowly averted.   When the circus irrupts into the midst of all this mayhem, things become even more wonderfully complicated – I want to watch the individual performers, the crowd’s reaction to them, the drama between Lexi, Kai and Gerda: and it’s just impossible!

What stood out for me was the performance of Benjamin Thomas’s Ringmaster – I couldn’t take my eyes off him even when Thomas Edward’s cocky little Strong Man was blithely tossing his Ballerina, Alice Kawalek into the air.  I wanted to follow the Acrobats, Rishan Benjamin and Elizabeth Williams – their contortions on the stage of the tiny theatre looked fascinating – and the Clowns (James Garrington and Andrea Azzari) were also demanding attention which I couldn’t always give them.   Later on, in the gypsy encampment it was Benjamin Thomas who drew my eye again, though Grace Horler’s Mazelda was another strikingly powerful dancer.   

And of course there’s the amazing violinist Gill Risi, strolling through the whirling gypsy dancers (all of whom are superbly athletic and eye-catching) who astounds with her fiery, dramatic playing.  No wonder her curtain call – and that of the whole Scottish Ballet orchestra under Martin Yates – received some of the loudest applause of the night.

It was, sadly, the principal characters whom I found slightly underwhelming.  It’s hard for Kai (Bruno Micchiardi) once he gets the glass fragments in his eye.  Up till then he’s been the charming, hopeful suitor who is delighted to have his proposal to Gerda accepted: after that he becomes a bit of a sulky boy puppet, obeying the demands of the Snow Queen and basically being a bit of a git.  Kayla-Maree Tarantolo’s Gerda danced beautifully, but didn’t really get much opportunity to display her inner fire, even when trying to get her engagement ring back from Lexi.  Lexi herself (Melissa Polson) was a brilliant dancer, but had to spend much of her time being disappointed: I felt really sorry for her when she made the sacrifice of returning to her sister’s palace, a moment which I felt passed rather too quickly.

Jessica Fyfe’s Snow Queen was also a superb dancer but she really didn’t make me shiver with fear nor even want to boo her furiously.  She goes around bullying everyone, and isn’t even particularly pleased to get her sister back: I don’t envy the two of them trying to get along in their ice palace…

This aside, Snow Queen is a wonderfully entertaining show and, as I’ve said, a superb introduction to ballet.  My companion had never been to the ballet before, and loved it, as did the whole of the Festival Theatre audience.   The show is a lovely way to enjoy the magic of the festive season, and I’m really glad to have seen it again – not least to see some of the Mary Queen of Scots dancers in wildly different roles!  Meanwhile, I’m looking forward enormously to seeing Scottish Ballet’s fabulously entertaining gender-swapping Cinderella next Christmas, together with all the other delights waiting for me in 2026.

Scottish Ballet presents The Snow Queen, Festival Theatre, Edinburgh runs until Sunday 7^th December for more information and tickets go to: https://www.capitaltheatres.com/shows/scottish-ballet-the-snow-queen/

The production will tour to Glasgow Theatre Royal, Aberdeen His Majesty’s Theatre and Inverness Eden Court Theatre.

***** (5 stars)

“A brilliant concert!”

As ever, this was a brilliant concert.  The Royal Northern Sinfonia love coming to Musselburgh’s Northesk parish church, and Musselburgh loves to welcome them.  The church was packed, and not just with grey heads, all keen to spend an evening with this talented group of musicians who so obviously enjoy making music together and sharing it with us.

They presented a packed programme of Baroque music – Rameau, Leclair, Torelli, Purcell, Corelli, Locatelli, Telemann and Handel took us to England, France, Germany and Italy.  Director Maria Włoszczowska told us how much the Sinfonia love coming to Scotland: it’s not just the freshness of the air but the importance of folk music in Scottish culture, which makes audiences resonate with the folk tunes in the music they play.

There were plenty of them, beginning with Rameau’s Danse from his Fêtes des Herbes, with a continuous bass drone upon which the upper strings danced delicately before everyone burst into an almost eastern, gypsyish dance with a lively tambourine accompaniment.  Leclair’s violin concerto gave soloist Maria Włoszczowska a showcase for her incredible technique – but all the other players are equally talented.  Texture, phrasing, dynamics, shaping, communication, incredible precision, and above all a joy in playing suffuses everything they play, and makes the whole evening a non-stop succession of delights.

And it wasn’t just strings, either!  The tambourine made several appearances, as did sleigh bells.  Maria Włoszczowska turned out to be a mean one-handed drummer, and harpsichordist Amhad Arara could be seen bopping away in the liveliest pieces, adding his solid support and extravagant flourishes to the music.

A couple of Christmas concerti made appearances, there was a wonderful Rameau Orage [storm], one of Handel’s concerti grossi and some delightful dances from Purcell’s Fairy Queen.  A particular joy was to hear Michael Gerrard as soloist in Telemann’s viola concerto.  Throughout the evening his instrument could be heard as a warm, rich contribution among the brighter dancing violins: now he got to stand centre stage and show off his impressive technique in a gorgeous piece which rightly got the loudest applause of the evening.

I don’t know about anyone else in the audience, as I was sitting at the back of the church, but I was smiling virtually from beginning to end of the evening, for sheer joy at the quality of the music and the delight of watching a group of superb musicians play music they obviously love.  Already I’m looking forward to next year’s visit… haste ye back!

The Brunton, Christmas by Candlelight, Northesk Parish Church, Musselburgh, Run Ended.

***** (5 stars)

“What a delight!”

Yet again Scottish Opera have found four supremely talented young singers who, with the accompaniment of a brilliant pianist, kept us engrossed in the extraordinary kaleidoscope of emotions they displayed for us in Trav 1 last night.

It must have been a challenge for them all to be in the Trav’s heavily-draped theatre space, with its extremely high rake, instead of the village halls they usually perform in.  It’s much harder to sing in a space which absorbs instead of reflecting the sound you make – the impulse is to make more effort, to shout, instead of relying on your normal technique to deliver the goods.  I also felt sorry for Megan Rhoades, the pianist, who had to perform on a tiny Yamaha whose sound was small and really didn’t carry to me on the front row: I can only hope that it travelled up to reach the back rows of the pretty full house.

Fiona MacSherry has devised a superb programme which displayed the multifaceted nature of human relationships – love, unrequited or returned, jealousy, rage, despair, misery, heartbreak and happiness – and placed it, surprisingly but extremely successfully, into the setting of an office party.  Fiona also unknowingly provided a moment of unbounded joy for me: for the first time in my life I saw a live performance of Samuel Barber’s A hand of bridge, of which more anon.

Baritone James Geidt was making his debut with Scottish Opera, and he opened the show with Tonio’s prologue from Leoncavallo’s I pagliacci.  It felt to me that he was perhaps trying a little too hard as he reminded us that tonight’s performers are human  beings who themselves feel real emotions: I was happy to hear a much more relaxed and mellifluous sound from him later in the evening.

Extracts from Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette gave all four singers a chance to shine vocally while also quickly establishing the dramas at play in the office party: who fancied whom, who hadn’t an earthly, and what quarrels were brewing.  Another of my favourite pieces – Massenet’s Charlotte’s tragic musing on the absent poet Werther’s letters gave mezzo Chloe Harris a perfect opportunity to hint at imminent tragedy, to which Ceferina Perry’s Sophie is completely oblivious.  More tragedy followed, with Nedda and Silvio’s escape plans being overheard by Canio, Nedda’s husband, and providing tenor Luvo Maranti with a wonderfully show-stopping aria to close the first half.

Many moons ago now I purchased my first CD player and with it the first items in what became an extensive collection.  One of these was a compilation disc – mostly extracts from other CDs, but also a piece which both intrigued and haunted me: Samuel Barber’s eight-minute opera, A hand of bridge.  Two married couples – Bill and Sally, Geraldine and David – meet regularly to play bridge.  As the game progresses, we become privy to the inner lives of the participants.  Barber’s real-life partner, composer Gina-Carlo Menotti (possibly best known for his Amahl and the Night Visitors, a Christmas piece a million miles away from the emotions of this work!) wrote the libretto – and what a revealing one!  Bill is fixating on his current mistress, Cymbeline; Geraldine laments that her lover Bill, her husband, and her dying mother are all slipping away from her; David’s frustrated rage at his employer, Mr Pritchett, the bastard, bursts out intermingled with a stream of wild sexual fantasies; and all the while Sally, who is frustrated at always being dummy, finds consolation in dreaming of her wished for hat of peacock feathers.  It was a total joy to see all this realised for us while in the midst of this complex music a game of cards was played out.

Another delight followed.  I love all of Handel’s operas, but Alcina is one of my very favourites.  The hero, Ruggiero, is the latest victim of the eponymous sorceress, trapped on an island inhabited by the animals and statues who were previous human victims of her magic.  Bradamante, his betrothed, has disguised herself as a man, Ricciardo, and gone to find him.  She reveals herself to him, but he is totally confused: has he just met his beloved, or is ‘she’ yet another of Alcina’s enchantments?  Chloe Harris gave a wonderful performance of this aria, making me long to see her in the whole role.

And then the foursome let their hair down!  It probably helped that this was the last night of a pretty long (two month) run, but also that the music was Johann Strauss II’s frothy comedy Die Fledermaus.  Intrigue, deception, masks and trickery are the order of the day as we attend Orlofsky’s party, the order of the day being chacon à son gout (each to his own).  One magic moment within this was the delivery of a marvellous hat with not only peacock feathers but a tiny peacock on it: a real shoutout for the props/ wardrobe team!!  

Arias, duets, and a final glorious quartet brought the evening to a scintillating end: almost – after our thunderous applause we were brought gently to earth by a warm and affectionate Duidu quartet in which the singers use the informal ‘du’ rather than the polite, more formal ‘sie’.  More appreciative applause accompanied our performers as they finally left the stage.

It was an enchanted and enchanting evening.  The pieces were cleverly selected both to entertain and to showcase the singers’ talents: almost my only criticism is that their voices blended so well, it’s a pity there weren’t a couple more quartets in the programme.  It was a delight to hear mezzo Chloe Harris and tenor Luvo Maranti after their magnificent performances in last week’s Ravel and Walton double bill, and to see yet more of their versatility.  I was impressed by both Ceferina Perry and James Geidt and trust that they will soon be returning to perform with Scottish Opera.

And then for something completely different – Tchaikovsky heroines next week and a new opera next year…. Dai Fujikura and Harry Ross’ the Great Wave explores the life of Japanese artist Hokusai – another world premiere from Scottish Opera.  Is it any wonder that I love this company?!

Scottish Opera, Opera Highlights autumn tour, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, TOUR ENDED

***** (5 stars)

“Fascinatingly Contrasting”

Scottish Opera chose a very interesting pair of one-act operas for their contribution to this autumn’s Lammermuir Festival, with performances in Glasgow and Edinburgh later in the year.

Ravel’s L’heure espagnole is an amusing farce – an old clockmaker’s younger wife attempts to enliven the one day of the week her husband is out, with interestingly confusing results.  Walton’s The Bear at first sight seems much more sombre – there is humour, but subtler and understated in the tale of a grieving widow who refuses to re-engage with life, despite the urgings of her servant.  She is determined to punish her husband by her extreme devotion in mourning; it takes the arrival of a determined creditor to shatter her calm demeanour, with surprising results.

It’s not particularly uncommon to find the Ravel in performance, but the Walton is very rarely staged – so this was a particularly exciting evening for opera lovers.  It was also a wonderful demonstration of Scottish Opera’s ability to select young singers who display great potential for their Emerging Artists programme, and continue to cast them in increasingly prominent roles as they mature as performers.

Lea Shaw is the perfect example of this.  I’ve been struck by her talent from the first time I saw her when she was an Emerging Artist: her performance as the bored and frustrated clockmaker’s wife, Concepciòn, was brilliant.  Much of her part consisted of telling us, the audience, how frustrated she was, while at the same time juggling two would-be lovers and, in the process, finding that the despised third young man is actually the most promising of all.  Her ability to conceal her increasing frustration while juggling two very different suitors in and out of her husband’s clocks was masterly – the slightest gesture or facial expression spoke volumes.  And her singing is as magnificent as ever.

Three current Emerging Artists did double duty this evening, while a fourth took on the massive role of Yelena Ivanovna Popova, the grieving widow.  Chloe Harris was at first subdued, seemingly meek and mild, devoted to the memory of her husband.  Only slowly did her burning resentment of his philandering behaviour emerge: her continuing mourning was an attempt to punish him, make him suffer beyond the grave.  As her husband’s creditor increased his pressure on her to pay a long-outstanding debt, her composure slowly cracked and shattered, with explosive results. Another fabulous voice that I want to hear again, and soon!

Tenor Luvo Maranti was new to me.  He had little to do in The Bear, but was obviously at home in comedy.  In the Ravel, he was perfectly cast as Gonzalve, the lyrical poet who would rather write verse about his experiences of engaging with a woman than actually get down to any action.  His voice is gorgeous, and Ravel’s music really suited him.  Again, I want to hear more!  [excellent news: I get to hear both of them in the touring company’s programme at the Traverse next weekend…]

I’ve been very impressed with what I’ve seen to date of Edward Jowle.  He can handle both comedy and more serious stuff, as shown in his performances in Trial by Jury, A Matter of Misconduct and La Bohème.  Tonight he was mildly funny as the uptight [and over-sized] nobleman seeking a bit of a fling with Concepciòn: he was superbly comical as the concerned butler, Luka – definite touches of John Cleese and the Addams’s Lerch there – alternating impeccable buttling and at times very subtle, at times outrageous, attempts to restore proper behaviour as that of his mistress and her visitor become increasingly uninhibited. 

And Daniel Barrett: what a joy!  Gorgeous voice, lively manner, excellent comic timing and also the ability to switch to heart-breaking pathos in an instant – again, I really look forward to seeing more of him.  As the naïve muleteer Ramiro, he willingly hefted enormous clocks around at the behest of the lively Concepciòn, mistaking her machinations for kindly attempts to give him employment, and grateful that he is not expected to engage her in conversation – he doesn’t know how to deal with women, and is much happier around animals.  Though by the end of the opera, I think he’s beginning to change his mind…  Daniel’s Grigory Stepanovich Smimov is a complete contrast, initially polite and even beseeching as he attempts to collect the debt which will save him from financial ruin, and gradually transforming into the hulking great angry bear of the title, expressing a maelstrom of conflicting emotions towards the grieving widow.

Last, but by no means least, Jamie McDougall was his subtly comic best as the trusting clockmaker, Torquemada and the hapless cook, roped in at the last minute to try to help butler Luka and [unnamed] groom deal with the raging monster who’s wrecking their mistress’s house.

Jamie is a wonderfully versatile performer – deeply moving in his recent, final, performances as Harry Lauder, and seemingly able to turn his hand to just about everything.

The simple set sat well amidst that of Bohème – fluorescent tubes changed colour to reflect the moods of the pieces with superb contrast between the brightly-hued Spanish setting and the sombre, black-and-lilac Russian gloom.  Costumes and props in the Ravel were equally colourful and fantastical, underlining the light-hearted mood, while a funeral parlour setting, complete with coffin and portrait of the deceased and home to many black potted palm trees, spoke clearly of deep melancholy.  

The music was also fascinatingly contrasting.  Ravel wrote different styles of music for each of his protagonists, so that much of the opera consisted of show pieces for each character: only in the final quintet did all five characters come together, though each had something different to say.  It seemed quite bizarrely out of place but I guess also a strangely fitting way to end such a whimsical piece.  I have to say I much preferred the Walton because the piece was more of a continuous piece and the orchestration was subtle and complex and very clearly revealed what was going on inside each character’s head.  I can’t say it sounded very Russian, though!

Both pieces were very well received, and together made a splendid evening’s entertainment, while also showcasing the talent of Scottish Opera’s younger artists.  Small wonder that the audience were moved to long and deeply appreciative applause at the end of The Bear.  

L’Heure Espagnole and The Bear, Scottish Opera, Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, RUN ENDED

***** (5 stars)

“It’s Simply Stunning”

Having just got back from Finland the night before, I was tired and the temptation not to go out into a dark and wet night was strong.  I am SO glad I made it to the FilmHouse for this world premiere of David Ireland’s The Fifth Step.  

It’s simply stunning.

The play’s title references one of the Alcoholics Anonymous Twelve Steps, which their website says provide a structured and gradual process of recovery from addiction to alcohol.  The fourth step is to make a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves: the fifth is to admit to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.  The website goes on to say that ‘God’ in the 12 Steps absolutely does not have to be a religious entity.  The purpose is to think of a higher power, such as nature, or simply what happens when people come together to help each other.

James has been sober for many years.  He’s a quiet, respectable Englishman who is very self-contained but at the same time seems happy to reach out to help Luka, who has not long arrived at AA.  Luka’s in a bad way – twitching and jiggling around, words streaming out of him in tortured explosions.  He’s a Scot, a ginge with a huge chip on his shoulder and a maelstrom of emotions whirling inside him: he’s like a pressure cooker on the verge of exploding.

Luka asks James to be his sponsor: James agrees, and the two men meet regularly.  We see Luka beginning slowly to creep out of his tormented life and to establish habits that help him resist the constant temptations of alcohol and the obsessive behaviours in which he hides.  We also discover more about the incredibly reserved James – all is not well in his life despite his protestations to the contrary.   Luka has struggled with writing his step four, and when he begins to approach step five the relationship between the two men comes under extreme pressure.

Words fail me as I try to describe just how good Martin Freeman and Jack Lowden are as James and Luka – and how brilliantly their delivery of David Ireland’s words takes us on a roller-coaster ride of emotions.  In the after-show Q&A with these three men, we heard that the sympathies of Scottish audiences were totally with the troubled Luka, while in England it was English James who got the sympathy for encountering the large, loud, in your face Scot.  This must make me a Scot [by adoption], for my sympathy was totally with Luka, both for his initial struggles and the incredible progress he made.  James’ initial gentle calm helpfulness cracked under pressure, and a much less likeable person began to emerge…

I don’t want to go into greater detail: you’ll have to see this for yourself!  There’s incredible humour – again, particularly Scottish in some places, with the cinema audience laughing heartily while the theatre audience seemed quite silent.  The language is rich, very graphic in places, and wonderfully descriptive both of emotions and situations.  A constant thread throughout the evening is the ‘God’ of AA – both deeply moving and hysterically funny at times, with a wonderful final twist.

The filming of the play is incredibly well done – we are virtually beside James and Luka on stage much of the time, and can see the slightest trace of emotions flitting across their faces.  The play began its life in 2024 with National Theatre of Scotland productions in Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasow.  Earlier this year, the show transferred to the West End of London and was a sell-out success at the intimate, in-the-round @sohoplace theatre.  It’s this production that was captured live and which you will be able to watch in cinemas from November 27^th [thefifthstep.ntlive.com]

This is one of the most powerful pieces of theatre I’ve seen in a long time – you’d be a fool to miss it!

The Fifth Step, National Theatre Live!, General Release on 18th November at Cinemas Nationwide