The Fringe may not be the most obvious place for epic musicals, but with a cast of twenty-two, Ring of Stones succeeds in being the exception that proves big shows can work. A tale of the brave villagers of Eyam who chose to selflessly quarantine themselves - ‘nobody in and nobody out’ - when plague struck in 1665, writers Eddie Brierly and Peter Robinson have crafted a mini Les Miserables for the fringe, replete with soaring ballads and a cast brimming with passion.
Gravedigger Marshall Howe (played with aplomb by Robinson himself) is a survivor of the plague, who recounts two summers of strife when the disease killed three-quarters of the village’s population in the mid-1660s. It’s not an easy story to make a song and dance about, but Breirly and Robinson’s music has some strong, memorable tunes and a warm heart, even if its electronic backing soundtrack did take away some of the charm. The energetic cast, whose ages range from 11 to 71, work wonderfully together, although choreography could have been snappier and solo pieces reveal the weaker singers in the group.
The script took some time to get going (the plague only hits about half-way through the show) and there were certain intriguing subplots that were picked up and quickly let go. Amongst them is a ideological rift between two ministers, the puritan Thomas Stanley and the unpopular but government-endorsed William Mompesson; this might have emerged as an intriguing philosophical discussion but is sadly put to one side early.
In many respects the show is a jumble of events, characters, and anecdotal stories. A love story is brought in, then discarded, and without a main character we’re left emotionally in the lurch. Towards the end, when another character succumbs to the plague, Marshall Howe cries out ‘what’s one more tragedy in this story?’ and we in the audience thought the same. Nevertheless, this is a fascinating story, with a great deal of heart and soul.
