Sunshine on Leith

The “House Full” notice was up, as it was over all three performances of this show, just proving how popular this musical is with the general public. Substituting for my colleague Ron Stewart, thankfully I was not required to walk the necessary 500 miles associated with this show! Instead, I had a leisurely evening’s drive to reach the venue where I was highly entertained by this musical group. It has been many, many years (I was in my teens!), when I last attended a Forfar show and I was delighted to see so much hard work unfold before me on stage in this show. A talented cast brought out this tale of tangled loves, with a little intrigue, set in the Edinburgh Leith area. As the two returning Afghanistan soldiers Ross Coverdale (Davy) and Ewan Phillip (Ally), both turned in great and strong performances as the intricacies of their love lives unfolded before us, and also proving to be a couple of likely lads! The women in their lives, Yvonne (Louise Cumming) and Liz (Terri Roberts), both strong actresses, matched these lads with their own special talents. And all four proved to also have powerful and pleasant singing voices. Davy’s parents, Rab and Jean, also play a predominant part in the story line as they celebrate their 30th Wedding Anniversary. But this calm of domesticity is shattered when unknown facts begin to emerge. As the parents, Rab (David Mitchell), brought out a thoughtful understanding of his role whilst Rhoda Burke, as wife Jean, shone throughout in all that was required of her – especially in the “Should Have Been Loved” music number on the Royal Yacht Britannia. All these main players have to move quickly from comedy lines to dramatic moments in this show, and they all carried it off extremely well indeed. The flashback sequence had an ethereal look about it and was very nicely done with Lauren Hutcheson (Margaret) and Darren Gill, as Young Rab, showing their prowess in their young roles. There was much stage movement from the company, who played many of the supporting small parts and “I’m On My Way”, “Throw The ‘R’ Away”, and “Let’s Get Married” were great to watch. Of course, everyone waits for “500 Miles” – and we got it . . . “big time”, with the full company . . . plus an added bonus in the shape of Mark Lumgair on the bagpipes, all giving it “laldy” on the stage! Great moment! The Forfar folk certainly excelled themselves in this production!

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