IMPROBABLE FREQUENCY. To 27 August.
Edinburgh
IMPROBABLE FREQUENCY
by Arthur Riordan and Bell Helicopter
Traverse 1 To 27 August 2006
Tue-Sun various times
Runs 2hr 30min One interval
TICKETS: 0131 228 1404
www.traverse.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 16 August
Improbable story that’s a frequent delight.
This musical, from Ireland’s Rough Magic Theatre, is set in World War II Dublin, but includes a quintessentially English poet. He’s “Betjeman, John Betjeman”, as Louis Lovett’s cheery performance announces, to Bell Helicopter’s equally bouncy rhythm and Arthur Riordan’s lyric. Whether or not Betjeman in Dublin ever did a double-act for the English Secret Service, always suspicious of how Ireland might be Germany’s back-door into Britain), his presence here is a delight.
It’s limited to the fringes of the action. Riordan’s story is closer to the musical’s Irish literary voice, Myles Na Gopaleen. The fantastic story and witty punning device of expressing an idiom in literal terms recall Na Gopaleen. But Riordan’s use of this world is highly individual, with the last, most excruciatingly original of his definition-puns, making a vital contribution to the action.
A musical’s supposedly made or broken by its book. Riordan scores around 90% here; the second act moves overmuch into science-fiction fantasy, undermining the balance of reality and craziness. But where many musicals really break down is in their lyrics. Vapidity, cliché, awkwardness often dominate. Would it be going too far to suggest that, with his lyrics, Riordan scores at least 120%? It would not.
These are among the wittiest, most original lyrics of recent decades. They’re often laugh-outloud, always ingenious and never trite. And his story does something only matched previously by Tom Stoppard in Travesties, taking a wartime situation which brings together various literary notabilities, yet making an utter nonentity his central character.
This is Tristram Faraday; behind the ambitious name Peter Hanly creates a fine picture of puzzled English normality. A crossword fanatic, Faraday’s mental proclivity to word-games has him recruited to wartime cryptography; being let out on an Irish field-mission he’s like a schoolboy allowed out to play.
Darragh Kelly does an excellent double as Na Gopaleen and an IRA man, while Lisa Lambe and Cathy White make an excellent contrast of the light and dark in Faraday’s new life. Dan Gordon does his best with Erwin Schrodinger, the musical’s only bit-too-much. But, overall, Lynne Parker’s brisk production is a delight.
Erwin Schrodinger/Colonel: Dan Gordon
Tristam Faraday: Peter Hanly
Myles Na Gopaleen/Muldoon: Darragh Kelly
Philomena O’Shea: Lisa Lambe
John Betjeman/O’Dromedary: Louis Lovett
Agent Green: Cathy White
Director: Lynne Parker
Designer: Alan Farquharson
Lighting: Sinead McKenna
Sound: Bell Helilcopter (Conor Kelly/Sam Park)
Musical Director: Cathal Synnott
Costume: Kathy Strachan
Hair/Make-up: Val Sherlock
Associate director: Tom Creed
2006-08-22 16:47:38