Take ten
songs from an Australian music ballad album, link each in a story, set it in
Texas (specifically West Texas), cast the best musician/actor/singers and
production team you can find, then perform it in Liverpool. That’s what writer
Gerry Smyth has done and maaan (imagine a Texan drawl throughout) did he do it
right. What a treat.
The fifty minute each half show is a veritable romp
through Nick Cave’s macabre Murder Ballads album with Texan accents. Famous in
the UK for Red Right Hand – Peaky Blinders theme song, Cave’s album falls into
the Murder Ballads genre subcategory ‘murdered sweetheart’. It’s a complicated
plot that gets off to a slightly ropy start that does not really set up the
rest of the show with a far from joyful ‘Song of Joy’ leaving the audience and
to an extent the cast looking slightly bewildered, with narrator Virgil (Tom
Wilson) addressing the audience, ‘Ya’ll confused’.
Set in O’Malley’s bar the
cast of four re-enacted a series of violent murders attributed to a tall dark stranger
resembling mine owner, with a ‘killer smile’, Stagger Lee who ‘got himself some
fancy duds’, played gloriously to the hilt by Thomas Galshan in a full-length
coat dressed all in black from his Stetson to his cowboy boots.
Accompanying songs were played by old man Gaby (Gerry Smyth), in worn dungarees,
on electric guitar and percussion (even using his bare toes) and Tom Wilson on
acoustic guitar with the multi-talented Laura Connolly on beatbox. The cast
sang with character and great delivery interspersed with narration and some
comic O’Malley’s bar banter as they entertained their audience and a charming Virgil
tries to keep us on track while taking his chances with the feisty and fearless
foul-mouthed barmaid.
The small round bar tables that fill the front of house
are ideal for this immersive performance. Stepping into the audience frequently,
Connolly almost stole the show as she transformed seamlessly between playing barmaid,
mothers, daughters, wives and shocking murderer. The gruesome tales followed the
stories of two families, the Lees with three daughters and the Days with an
eligible son who they believed was too good for the Lees’ daughters. All were
violently murdered and a gun-slinging Stagger Lee, (Galshan looking like a young
Tom Hardy), went in search of revenge. At
one point an unexpected (how they manage to continually shock is quite an
accomplishment) murder caused Virgil to declare ‘I feel blue’, which roused the
band to a foot stomping, hand clapping sing-along with the show ending on a
well-deserved spontaneous standing ovation from the clearly happy audience.
Director
Ellie Hurt is fast building a reputation for her directing skills and with the
aid of fight director Daniel Meigh pulls off some amazing choreography and
stage movement. There are fight scenes a plenty and a delightful ribbon dance
becomes a murder scene. The cast are never less than fully engaged with their
audience with a sly wink or cheeky lick of the lip and their energy is
amazingly high from start to finish. The Texan accents and setting work really
well as Smyth cleverly injects a southern charm into the gruesome characters
that continues to take you by surprise with each murder. Some slight sound
issues owing to the speed of delivery required full concentration from the
audience, so it maybe needs tweaking up for those further back from the stage
to follow the fast-moving hilarious story. These minor issues are all fixable
and Murder Ballads deserves far more than this packed out three-night short run.
Thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining.
Reviewer - Barbara Sherlock
on - 2/11/18
No comments:
Post a Comment