Sidgwick And Sanders present a new musical about the plague... no, not coronavirus, although there are many contemporary parallels (!) - this plague is the one we all learnt about in school, but actually know very little about... The Black Death.
This Yorkshire-based company use the premise of giving a lecture on the Plague by three experts in their respective fields (one, quite literally, since he is a vegetable farmer!), to take us back to 1348 and the village of Bogsfield, where, the village Headman and the head priest are at loggerheads over how best to deal with and contain the plague.
It seems that the only person in the town with enough good-old Yorkshire nowse to be able to save them is Mr Turnip's daughter. But this is the Medieval period in England and women don't have a voice.. this is very much a mans' world.... and so she has to fight twice as hard to get anyone to listen to her. On her quest she meets a crazy old crone in the woods (who has a secret she hasn't shared with anyone in many years), but perhaps together (with a little help from The Carrot Of Destiny) they can make the people of Bogsfield understand and save the townsfolk from certain death...?!
With a whole deal of humour and bonhomie, most of which is very funny indeed; this is a clever, witty, and very entertaining new musical, performed by a very talented cast. I greatly enjoyed the root vegetable expert, and having the plague itself represented through the malevolent presence of an acrobatic dancer was genius. Further, this large cast performed without microphones and their voices were all loud, clear and their diction and singing on point at all times.
A fun show (despite the title), and definitely worth watching. Bravo.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 23.8.22
on - 23.8.22
Couldn't agree more. Saw this show last week and i was laughing all the way through. Brilliant writing, brilliant and talented cast. Wanted to see it again but ran out of time.
ReplyDelete