Directed by Catherine McLean, The Chaplain is the story of a man whose grim responsibility it is to administer salvation to the souls of the lowly unfortunates trapped in a decrepit Victorian jail. It’s a riveting gothic tale with overtones of Sweeney Todd and Les Miserables, both in the strident haunting music and the unrelenting Javert like rigidity of the eponymous hero. The threatening proximity of death is an ever present motif, from the imminent hanging of the death row prisoners to the murders outside the prison gates, and the chaplain’s ironclad belief in the afterlife adds supernatural fuel to the fire.
A thought-provoking musical with a decent gothic twist.
Told with an engrossing piano accompaniment from composer Gabriel Owens, The Chaplain is the latest fare from the Cambridge University Musical Theatre Society. This is the same society that brought us the mega musical hit Six which is still running in the West End, so expectations are high.
The company do not disappoint. Luke Muschialli as the chaplain is a menacing presence, more antihero than hero, berating his helpless charges with a total lack of sympathy. He’s entirely inflexible, seeing the prisoners as steeped in sin rather than victims of a society which leaves them destitute in their poverty. He has the only other instrument on stage, a cello, which goe some way toward softening and humanising a man who is monstrous in his self-righteousness.
The three female actors Lexie Graham, Neela Nee and Sanaer Madden are especially strong vocally. The bare set, simply two black chairs in the black box of the auditorium, drives our focus to the voice. Even the costume is a unrelenting black, though thoughtful lighting is used to create variety in the space and Jacob Coughlan breaks the tension as the macabre warden, delivering some great comic lines.
The characterisation of the prisoners themselves is pleasingly sharp with each one having their own story of poverty and deprivation, each of which ironically casts the light of criticism onto the chaplain’s religious beliefs. As a consequence the show moves away from a superficial damnation of those trapped behind prison bars into a more interesting exploration of the hypocritical bars of religious judgement. The cruel mythology of an afterlife which damns those who have committed acts of desperation to eternal hell is quickly seen as riddled with theological, philosophical and moral holes. Wilf Offord’s anthemic song about his lack of belief in god is a dramatic highlight.
Overall, a thought-provoking musical with careful attention given to the philosophical ideas within the story and a decent gothic twist at the end.
