A celebration of Highland Dancing and new talent
This is an exciting musical that follows Mary (Lucy Duffy) as she struggles to find her niche in the arts world by joining a Highland Dancing group seeking great success, while questioning whether her relationship with Andrew (Michael McLean) is going to go the distance.
What makes this musical stand out it is the combination of Highland Dancing (from Tartan Feet Company) and original writing that is a great introduction for the performers - fulfilling the mission statement of Kingdom Theatre Company to provide performance opportunities for students in the early stages of their training.
All actors are clearly filled with energy and fully embody their roles, although their delivery and movement is quite robotic at times. This may perhaps derive from one of the cast having broken her foot the night before the first performance forcing parts of the script to be hastily rewritten. The pace changes abruptly – potentially due to the rewriting – with some songs not correlating to the scene that happens before, which makes the show a little disjointed.
That being said, the actors are comfortable with the songs and perform them with feeling, with Lucy Duffy standing out with her powerful vocals as she shows off her range. The dancers are elegant and execute the arm and leg extensions well but the timing of the moves is sometimes off, breaking the unity of the dances.
Kingdom Theatre Company’s new musical is hitting the Fringe with excitement and a collection of sweeping ballads and upbeat numbers. Whip out your dancing shoes and prepare for a celebration of Highland Dancing and new talent as they take to the stage at Greenside at Infirmary Street (Venue 236).
