Mr Francis & the Village of Secrets

It was with eager anticipation that I looked forward to seeing this play after learning earlier in the year the group were commissioning a piece with a local flavour. Playwright Alan Bissett was approached and came up with the idea of basing the play on the later life of the Gothic novelist and playwright Francis Lathom who, after being banished by his family from his hometown of Norwich for homosexual indiscretions in 1810, finally found himself in 1825 in the small village of Inverurie in rural Aberdeenshire adopting the name James Francis. Through the script, and original music and lyrics by resident Musical Director Ashley Forbes, the hilarious and sometimes tragic play speculates about Latham’s past while turning a satirical eye to the religious hypocrisies of 19th Century Scotland. Jordan Abberley-Nicoll as the eponymous Francis Lathom gave a tour-de force performance bring out equally the character’s  joie-de vivre when interacting with the villagers in the tavern (and when directing them in a performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream!) and his inherent sadness at the forced separation from his children and wife. Imogen Watt and Euan Banks as Mary and Alexander Rennie, the farming couple who along with their 3 children take Lathom into their home, were excellent - Mary strong and outspoken and Alexander timid until he eventually plucks up courage to point out to the local minister and the rest of the villagers that they all hold secrets – avarice, drunkenness, loose morals etc - and shouldn’t pass judgement on Lathom. Mikey Nicoll and Eleanor Harper, the black-clad Reverend and Mrs Beagle, also gave strong performances as the bigoted cleric and his wife with Mikey being particularly strong in the scene where he uses carefully selected passages from Scripture to prove Lathom guilty of an abominable sin. Josh Simpson also gave a strong performance as manipulative local magistrate Stuart McLeod, who when his efforts to bed Lathom were unsuccessful, turned against Lathom and exposed him with the aid of Lathom’s son Henry (Scott Sambrook). Much of the laughter in the piece was engendered by the town gossips – Minnie the Milkmaid (Alex Kelman), Sally the Servant Girl (Imogen Vickers), Fiona the Fishwife (Arwen Scott) – and the Editor (Ruby Harrison) and Assistant Editor (Molly Robertson) of the local paper. The simple monochrome set was very effective allowing the action to flow smoothly from village square to tavern to farm to church. The costumes were perfect for the period and appropriate to each character. The singing and movement of the company were excellent especially in the opening and closing numbers “Simple Fowk” and “Roar of the Greasepaint”. Congratulations to everyone for a superb – and thought provoking- performance.

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