There could be an incredible musical story in the tragic rise and fall of Mary, Queen of Scots, leading from her ascension to the throne to her eventual abdication, imprisonment for 19 years and subsequent beheading upon the order of her cousin, Elizabeth I. That is what the children of Lochaber High School presented at this year’s Fringe, showcasing a new musical play written by Ian Welch and George Young. With a cast and orchestra of 26 children, this has been a huge undertaking for the school.
To all intents and purposes this play was supposed to tell the story of one of Scotland’s most enigmatic monarchs, but poor direction from Jacqi Hume made it a flop right from the word go. My one star is for the children, for turning up in force and being there to represent their school. It is not for the production team, who missed an opportunity to find a real energy amongst their young cast. Good direction could have brought the best out of these youngsters. So where did it all go wrong?
The characters lacked conviction and ensemble numbers were tweed and limp, when the music and words were surely strong enough to push forward with something much more bold and epic. ‘Well that’s ok, I’ll just follow the story,’ I hear you say. Most of the dialogue in-between songs was completely inaudible with the cast mumbling their lines so far back on stage that they were almost out the fire exit. Again, directors: what were you thinking? These guys needed to be up front with a crash-course in projection under their belts.
Then there were the stagehands and the blackouts. I should have started a tally for how many times we were plunged into darkness while the stagehands were trundled out once again to move a table and some plastic tubs (how very 16th century) a few inches in preparation for the next scene. The play would have been much stronger if they didn’t need to worry about the set moving around.
Technically the show also failed. The lighting design was bizarre - it was as if all the lights were pointing in the wrong direction. At one point, a light came on as if to illuminate something stage left, but it actually put the spotlight on a random member of the audience. Some of us turned around as if to expect the man to get up and be part of the performance, but he just sat there bemused.
After an hour and a half of this musical play, I almost wanted to swap places with Mary, as she took her fateful last steps. It was a shame that this production didn’t live up to what could have been.