Sunshine on Leith

The sun shone brightly in Lanark as the Society played to four sell-out performances in the 500 seater Memorial Hall. All principals skilfully captured the fun, joys and heartaches of relationships and the impact this brought into a tight-knit family unit. Returning home to Leith from war, squaddies Davie Henshaw (Jamie McCaw) and Ally (Cameron Black) provided great dramatic performances as they transitioned back to civilian life, re-living the atrocities experienced in Afghanistan whilst pursuing their love interests with Yvonne and Liz superbly played by Nicola Duthie and Megan Daly. Jonathan Procter provided a first-class performance as Rab Henshaw dealing with the torment of recently discovering Eilidh the daughter he never knew he had, which was played with great sensitivity by Skye Watson. On discovering this, Janet Whyte accomplishedly captured the emotions of Jean’s anger, pain and personal hurt which climaxed in her delivery of the song ‘Sunshine on Leith’. The production was centred around Susan Andrew’s creative set design with well-known Edinburgh and Leith landmarks including back projections to provide the perfect setting. The production was full of energy and everyone on stage provided excellent performances. Choreography was slick with the band setting the tempo keeping the show skipping along at a good pace. The company were all positioned around the action and provided strong choral support to the musical numbers which were delivered with energy and passion in particular ‘Hate My Love’ which closed act one and ‘500 miles’ which closed the show bringing the audience to their feet. This production also had some firsts with Alistair Morton taking on the role of production Director ably assisted by Claire Foster – well done both! A great evening’s entertainment.

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