THE LASS WI THE MUCKLE MOO. To 1 September.
Musselburgh.
THE LASS WI THJE MUCKLE MOO
by Alexander Reid.
Brunton Theatre 31 August-1 September 2007.
7.30pm.
Runs 2hr 25min One interval.
TICKETS: 0131 665 2240.
www.bruntontheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 26 August at Duddingston Kirk Manse Gardens.
Magical, vigorous comedy, magically and invigoratingly produced.
Alexander Reid’s post-Second World War play compares roughly with his English playwriting coeval Christopher Fry. Both mix high fantasy and the everyday, writing about a medieval world where death can seem a favourable option to people in a certain frame of mind. They delight in language and wordplay, making humour from a mix of metaphorical and literal meanings, and fine expression dipping suddenly into the mundane.
But Fry’s delicate traceries are far from Reid’s firm-muscled Scots and rip-roaring action. His play is often laugh-outloud funny, while the comic spirit suffuses it throughout. And it makes the 13th-century Scottish Borders resonate with modern times.
Alex McSherry’s splendidly hypochondriacal Murray, feet in a basin of water owing to a cold in the heid, is clearly suffering a psychosomatic illness; he’s up and running the moment the rival Scott family come a-rieving cattle.
Murray shows the splenetic fury of a UKIP stalwart complaining about Brussels as he fulminates about centralised power in Holyrood meaning a laird can no longer hang his own peasants from his own trees. Meanwhile, his daughter Margaret stays unmarried not because she actually has an over-large mouth but because Thomas the Rhymer, balladeer and clear forerunner of sound-bite journalists, has circulated a rhyme claiming she does.
Thomas moves between Scotland and Elfinland. And he’s all for captured Willie Scott being hanged rather than escaping into marriage with Meg. For Thomas is under command by Elfinland’s Queen not to lie in his verse, and he’s looking for good source material. But in this comic world the laddie’s not for turning-off, though one moment sees two heads in nooses.
Alongside McSherry’s flavoursome Murray, Lisa Nicoll is a firmly sensible wife, Robin Thompson’s loyal retainer boyishly keen on encouraging a scrap, David Elliott-George comically wilful as the prisoner who needs to distinguish reality from rumour, and Anna Guthrie sweetly energetic in the title role. Theatre Alba director Charles Nowosielski knows exactly how to handle language and action and directs a zestful, joyous production. They don’t really write them like this any more, but this company will make you pleased someone once did.
The Lady in Green, Queen of Elfland: Anne Lannan.
Thomas the Rhymer: Keith Hutcheon.
Sir Gideon Murray: Alex McSherry.
Grizel Murray: Lisa Nicoll.
Margaret Murray: Anna Guthrie.
Wattie Duncan: Robin Thompson.
Willie Scott/Lizzie/Drunken Rab: David Elliot-George.
Director: Charles Nowosielski.
Music: Richard Cherns.
2007-08-29 12:31:24