Category: Mary Woodward Review

***** (5 stars)

“Breathtakingly brilliant”

An incredibly powerful piece, performed with passion and energy.  A vitally important message, conveyed with lyricism and hopefulness. 

A simple story, with strong overtones of the life of Greta Thunberg, and paying homage to the many young climate activists around the world who are fighting for the future of their – of our! – world.  Lola has woken up to the climate emergency: she feels she simply can’t go to school any more, but must make her protest, alone if need be.  She encounters opposition both from her family, who don’t take her concerns seriously, and from her schoolmates, who mock and deride her.  It takes guts to stand alone…

Over the course of the opera, others slowly realise the importance of what she’s trying to say, and a swelling tide of protest grows from people of all ages who begin to realise This is our time/ this is happening now/ and if we don’t stand up/ answer this call/ then who will?  No-one is coming to save us/ but us…  Her sister is the first to support her, then her father, who is full of admiration for his daughter’s strength of conviction.  Her mother is put in charge of a massive construction project – ‘improving’ a road by demolishing acres of forest: convinced that ‘progress’ must be achieved, that ‘more’ is best, and truly believing that this is all for the good of her family.  Various adults try to persuade or bully Lola into backing down, but she stands firm.

The forest is destroyed, there is nothing to hold back the surge of water which sweeps away everything in its path, leaving a desert denuded of flora and fauna.  But “this is progress”, says Lola’s mum –“don’t spoil my triumph” while others lament the deaths of the trees and the disappearance of all the birds.

Uprising is the vehicle for an outstanding performance from the RSNO Youth and Changed Voices choruses, without whom much of the drama could not have been so powerfully conveyed.  They sing as a chorus, take individual roles as part of the narrative, and throughout it represent the forest, the birds and other creatures that live in it, and the inexorable power of the tumbling, surging waters that destroy everything in their path once the forest is not there to restrain them.  Simple hand and arm movements have stunning effect: and goodness me how on earth did they manage not only to learn and perform from memory a very long and complex musical score but combine with this brilliantly simple choreography for hands, arms and bodies??  Massive credit to their directors, Patrick Barrett and Frikki Walker!

The RSNO chorus and Chorus Academy also play a major part in the action – again, not just singing, but becoming objectors, supporters, construction workers and a police squad.  The RSNO orchestra, for once not in penguin suits, was magnificent, filling the Usher Hall with a rich and melodious tapestry of sound, creating a magically shifting atmosphere in which all the action takes place.  Holding this all together was conductor Ellie Slorach – watching her incredibly dynamic conducting style made me think that singing or playing under her baton must be such FUN!

Riding on this sea of glorious music are the soloists. Rhys Batt as the creepy doctor wanting to use electric shock treatment to ‘cure’ Lola and Edwin Kaye as the peacocking Mayor who regards Lola’s protest as ‘a blight on our lovely town’ make the most of their roles.  Edwin Kaye returns as Quercus, the mighty oak tree which presides over the forest whose inhabitants try in turn to show Lola’s mum how essential each of them is to the health and survival of the forest.

And then there’s the Green family… Mum Angela is brilliantly played by Madeleine Shaw – it’s really hard to like her at all, as her beliefs and attitudes are so diametrically opposed to mine – but she’s magnificent in her self-absorption and conviction that she’s doing the best for her family, even in the face of the disasters unleashed by the destruction of the forest.  Judith Lozano Rolong was slightly overshadowed by her overbearing mother, but gave a good performance as the older sister, initially hostile and jealous of her ‘attention-seeking’ sister, but slowly changing her views and siding strongly with Lola. 

Marcus Farnsworth’s subservience to his wife’s strength of conviction, his pride in her success, are slowly replaced by a growing admiration for his younger daughter’s courage and determination.  At first convinced that Lola will soon see sense if the family are nice nice nice to her, he is very uncomfortable with the proposed electric shock treatment; he is amazed at the way Lola’s schoolmates begin to listen to her and join in her passionate protest; at the end, he is really sorry for what he and humanity have done to the world.

And then there’s Ffion Edwards.  There really aren’t enough superlatives to describe her performance as Lola – the anguish which drives her to protest in the first place; the courage with which she continues in the face of determined opposition; the depression which hits her when she feels so alone and getting nowhere; the energy with which she responds to those people who begin to support her; the flaming passion with which she encourages those supporters and leads them to emulate young people like Greta Thunberg and the other young climate activists who are brought before us by members of the young choruses – all this pours out from her clear bright soprano which soars over the rest of the cast and inspires us to believe in her and hope that she, and others like her, will succeed in making humanity see sense and work to save, rather than destroy, the planet on which we live.

Uprising is a breathtakingly brilliant piece.  It would be so easy to write a piece of gloom and doom, and leave us all thoroughly depressed – but Jonathan Dove and librettist April De Angelis offer us the hopeful prospect of rewilding, regrowth, if humans stand back and let nature repopulate the areas devastated by a blind and uncaring human race.  I wish that all world leaders and heads of multinational corporations would have to attend a performance…

We want our dream – Nature first.  You can join us or you can leave.  Which will you choose?

Jonathan Dove, Uprising,Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Usher Hall, Edinburgh – Run Ended

***** (5 stars)

“Stupendous!  Stunning! Simply not to be missed”

I’ve not seen the film on which this musical is based – which meant the full force of the drama, the emotions, and the music hit me full force and left me virtually breathless and grasping for superlatives with which to describe this tour de force which had the entire audience on its feet at the end, stamping, shouting, cheering, and applauding so wildly it’s a wonder people’s hands didn’t drop off…

In essence, the story is simple: Rose-Lynn Harlan is a young Glaswegian woman whose passion is for country music.  She dreams of going to Nashville, Tennessee, and singing her heart out: her reality is somewhat different.  A first drug-related offence has landed her a year’s prison sentence, meaning her mum has to look after Rose-Lynn’s two children, Wynona and Lyle.  Released from prison, she finds that the world has moved on, and it doesn’t seem as if there’s a place for her in it.  Her place at Glasgow’s Grand Ole Opry has been filled by a long-haired, fairly talentless man (“but at least he’s reliable”); she hasn’t a home or a job; and her children really don’t want to know her – they used to be close, have fun together, but now they just want to stay with Gran.  She is desperate to sing – but is she prepared to give up everything else in her life in order to do this?

Wild Rose is a fabulous ensemble piece, with a large cast enthusiastically providing the ever-changing and challenging world in which Rose finds herself.  Clever use of backdrops rapidly establishes the scene; furniture and props are part of a complex ballet of scene-changes, and Rose’s frequently-changing outfits are brought to and taken from her with impressively understated but brilliantly worked-out choreography.  The ensemble players turn themselves from prisoners to Opry-goers to travellers on public transport; briefly step into the spotlight to play a brilliantly-observed individual and step back to take yet another part in the kaleidoscope of humanity in which Rose struggles to find herself and her family.

The story is a vehicle for a virtually unending stream of country songs, with the exceptionally talented band of eight musicians led by Ali Roocroft at the rear of the stage providing a powerhouse of music and backing vocals throughout the night.  Everyone in the cast is extremely good – but oh my goodness what an exceptionally powerful performance comes from Dawn Sievewright as Rose-Lynn.   Her voice is the most wonderful instrument with which she expresses every nuance of the bottled-up and conflicting emotions struggling for release: her acting is incomparable – she simply is Rose-Lynn, driven to sing and at the same time shredded by her need for the love that only her family can provide.

The energy crackling and bubbling throughout Wild Rose reminds me of Glasgow Girls – another celebration of Glaswegians’ indomitable spirit.  A feisty people who will not be squashed but speak out loudly, fearlessly, and without any attempt to soften or sanitise their utterances – here they are again, lovingly portrayed on stage: and the most outspoken, gallus, wonderful one of them all is Rose-Lynn Harlan, whose closing song finally pours out everything she’s been trying to say all her life.

I could spend many hundreds, or even thousands, more words trying to capture the magic of Wild Rose.  I’ll spare you, and just say this is one of the best things I’ve seen on stage in a very long while, and you’d be extremely foolish to miss it.  Go and get your ticket now!

Wild Rose, Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, Runs until Saturday 19^th April for more information and tickets go to: Wild Rose | Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh

***** (5 stars)

“Delightful and Passionate”

Yik Liang Soo, Khalil Johnson and Elze Fedorcovaite are the Chiara trio, who made their first visit to Northesk parish church as part of the ‘Music at the Brunton’ series.  ‘Chiara’ is Italian for ‘clear’: on a lovely sunny day the trio brought their clear, strong, and equal voices to their performance of trios by Haydn and Dvòrăk.

I’m more familiar with Haydn’s string quartets, which are delightful and encompass the full range of emotions – frequently sunny and joyful, occasionally moving into ‘the darker side of things’ but never really hitting the depths of anguish.  This G minor trio was written in 1794, when Haydn was 61: its jaunty start had an underlying melancholy – a cloudier day with occasional gleams of sunshine.  As the piece went on, I was aware of the constant visual communication between the three players – and, increasingly, the subservient part the cello was playing while the violin and piano took turns to shine…  Asked about this afterwards, cellist Khalil Johnson said ‘yes, but I’m really the important one – the rhythm section on which the other two build’ – and that’s very true! 

The Dvòrăk F minor trio is a considerably more substantial piece, with some fascinating key changes.  It begins and ends in F minor, with a move to the relative major, Ab – but the second movement is in C# minor – a slightly off-the-wall choice, but a most interesting one.  Written after the composer’s ‘Slavonic’ period, in which he used many folk tunes, and before the famous ‘Dumky’ trio, this is a dark, dramatic and powerful piece, possibly reflecting the composer’s emotions following his mother’s death.

Here the three musicians put their hearts and souls into the music, pouring out passionate, fluctuating emotions which tumbled and soared and wove around each other.  Rising and falling, dramatic outbursts alternated with tranquil moments and gleams of sunshine in the turbulent storms.  Elze’s piano rippled and thundered, Yik’s violin soared and wept, Khalil’s cello rumbled and grumbled and then burst out into gloriously clear and noble melodies.  There was no subservience here – each voice had its turn to shine in the spotlight and then dance with the others in an unending conversation with occasional gleams of sunshine on the crests of waves in a dark and stormy sea.

This magnificent performance was greeted with a veritable storm of applause, richly deserved, and prolonged – we really didn’t want these three immensely talented youngsters to leave us.  Our reward came with the perfect encore – a delicate, sunny, slightly cheeky fun bagatelle by English composer Frank Bridge.  It was a joy to see three friends having such fun together – I really do hope they return to Musselburgh very very soon!

Chiara Trio, The Brunton at Northesk,, Run Ended

***** (5 stars)

“A Fabulous Exploration”

I’d booked for this concert by the Maxwell Quartet, looking forward to an evening of classical string quartet music interspersed with a little traditional Scottish music.

During Thursday I received an email saying that the quartet’s violinist Colin Scobie was unwell.  Someone else would be stepping in at short notice and so the programme would include rather more traditional music than originally planned.

I arrived at the church, rejoicing yet again in the prospect of sitting close to the musicians and listening to intimate music in a building with a wonderful acoustic.  The quartet came on stage and a very laid-back performance began.  Cellist Duncan Strachan began by welcoming us to the church and introducing Scott Bryant to us, thanking him for being available at extremely short notice.  Throughout the evening it was impossible to believe that Scott had only had less than 24 hours to prepare – you would have thought he was an integral and long-standing part of the group.

We were treated to a wonderful mixture of Scottish traditional music arranged by the quartet themselves, who took it in turn to tell us what we would hear next and a little bit about some of the pieces.  The Maxwells have taken their music to many schools in the area as part of their project Bridging East Lothian, and I’m sure were as well-received as they were here.  In homage to the locality, they included As I cam in by Fisher Row, after which we had a whistle-stop tour of Scotland [and a brief foray over the water to Ireland] with a glorious mixture of reels, jigs and laments and a wonderfully cheeky [but noble] pipe march.

Violinist George Smith and violist Elliot Perks took turns with Duncan and Scott introducing the music.  As well as telling us where the tunes were from we were treated to some fine tales.  Macintosh’s  Lament dates from the 1500s, a song sung by a grieving widow whose husband, in trying to nullify a prophecy, dies tragically on his way home from the wedding.   Fr John McMillan of Barra, a friendly giant of a man, hirpled gaily around the island and disappeared into the distance.  Haripol, one of the fictitious estates in the novels John MacNab by John Buchan and Andreew Greig’s ‘spin-off’  Return of John NacNab was celebrated in a fast and furious dance as three friends rushed across Scotland trying to poach a salmon, a brace of grouse and a deer without getting caught.   The long-running feud between the Campbells and the McGregors included a Romeo and Juliet-style tragedy: McGregor’s Lament bewails the plight of the young woman whose lover is beheaded by her angry family.

In all this music, the four musicians were clearly loving playing together, relishing the conversation they were having, and delighting in the music which three of them have been playing since they were young.  The jigs and reels had many of us tapping our feet, nodding our heads, and relishing the lively rhythms – had we not been sitting in pews, surely some of us would have got up to dance…  The arrangements were superb, widely varied and perfectly expressing the emotions of the widely-differing tunes – a clear invitation to investigate further the magnificent treasure that is Scotland’s traditional music.

The final piece, Hector the hero, was quieter; a fitting end to the concert which was greeted with that true silence of appreciation which is better than any amount of thunderous applause.  There was, of course, loud applause – and most especially for Scott Bryant’s superb playing – as I’ve said, you’d never have known he had less than a day to learn all the music.

We were thanked for coming, and invited both to the Maxwell’s next concert at the Corn Exchange in Haddington in April, and if we had time, to hang around and chat with the quartet after the performance.   I took them up on the offer and was delighted to spend some time with their violist, Englishman Elliott Perks.  He had remarked during the evening on the crash course in Scottish history and traditional music he’d undertaken after joining the quartet, and I had a wide-ranging conversation with him, starting with wondering about the reasons for the difference between Scottish and English folk music.  I’d spent my youth singing and playing English and American-English folk songs [and lived in the south of England] – moving to Scotland and experiencing the much wilder landscape and learning history from the Scottish perspective sheds much light on why and how the differences have arisen.

A brilliant evening!  I’m sorry that Colin Scobie was unwell and hope that he’s better soon – but at the same time I’m so glad that circumstances dictated the change of programme and brought us such a fabulous exploration of Scottish traditional music.  Rock on the next Maxwell’s concert, whatever the programme !!

Music at the Brunton: Maxwell Quartet – Bridging East Lothian, Northesk Parish Church, Musselburgh, RUN ENDED

***** (5 stars)

“Simply Phenomenal”

Oh the joy of having a cinema in Musselburgh!  Since the closure of the Brunton itself, due to the ‘wrong kind of concrete’, the little theatre on Loretto school’s campus has been serving as a replacement cinema and theatre for many of the Brunton’s events.  I was delighted to go there last night to see the Bob Dylan film, A complete unknown – and also delighted to be treated by my companion to a drink from the well-stocked fridges in the theatre’s foyer.

The film itself was fascinating.  As someone who grew up in that era, learned to play the guitar and spent many many hours singing folk songs with my friends Frances and Christina, I was instantly transported back in time: it was with difficulty at times that I refrained from joining in the so-very-familiar songs….

Having learned that my guitar style needed to be pretty simple if I were to be able to remember the 22 verses of Matty Groves in the right order, I was transfixed by Timothee Chalamet’s guitar-playing.  Apparently this is an accurate representation of Dylan’s unique and complex style – and Chalamet also plays the harmonica and sings [and speaks] with Dylan’s accent and intonation, all of which are instantly recognisable.  ‘Amazing’ doesn’t do the actor justice – he’s simply phenomenal!

The narrative is not particularly accurate in its details, but the film does a brilliant job of portraying life in the mid-60s.  The growth of the folk movement, protesting the way things were and calling for change; the astonishingly rapid rise to the very heights of this completely unknown young man who was only nineteen when he met Pete Seeger; the very casual nature of life and relationships within the youth of the day; the contrast and conflict between the ‘old guard’ folk purists and those who wanted the music to move into the 20th century; the pressure on Dylan of the demands of both the public and the record companies and financial backers; the incredible self-absorption and self-belief which drove Dylan continually to move forward and change his style as he sought to express what he wanted to say; and above all the sheer genius of his song-writing; all these come over so clearly and make for a marvellous evening out.

All this joy – and then a short walk home instead of a long walk, a long wait, and a long bus journey back out of town: what’s not to love about ‘the Brunton cinema’ in Musselburgh?!

Film: A Complete Unknown, The Brunton at Loretto Theatre, Musselburgh, Run Ended