Sunshine on Leith

Sunshine on Leith is based on a story of two best friends, Davy and Ally , returning from war to family ties along with re kindling old relationships. The story evolves around Davy returning to his family consisting of his sister Liz and mother and father, Jean and Rab. Ally had been the boyfriend of Liz before going into the services, whilst Davy strove to win the heart of Yvonne and completing the plot Eilidh turned out to be the unknown daughter of Rab from a one-night stand 28 years earlier. The cleverly written story moves through many emotional scenes not all with happy conclusions. The excellent script was of course interspersed with a multitude of songs from the famous group The Proclaimers.

The audience on entering the theatre were presented with the most simplistic set consisting of stairs and rostrum giving the performers three levels to work with, stairs to both sides leading to the central level and further ones to a higher balcony allowed for excellent balancing of performer numbers during many of the larger ensemble pieces, but also used with great effect providing a differing of heights during some of the intimate scenes. 

The Director, Mark Harris along with Ass Director Jill Beckett achieved very high standards throughout the performance. This is very much a play with music requiring not only great singing but strong acting. The nature of the show and the quality writing required performances showing all aspects of acting including emotion, bitterness, love, despair, frustration, anger, humour and more. I was delighted to see how this was all delivered throughout with so many memorable scenes. The musical being set in Scotland also required the actors to be comfortable in delivering lines with a true accent which I felt they did extremely well and not always easy due to the main principals going through so many highs and lows. In addition to the direction the choreography by Claire Harriott was expertly rehearsed. The ensemble numbers devised to give the cast space to perfect their moves. I really enjoyed the discipline of the marching / military effect which some took on along with clever weaving and interesting dancing. The combined production team should also be complimented as there are 30 plus scenes. The cast seamlessly moved set pieces on and off allowing the performance to flow. Your musical Director Tom Owen certainly must be so proud of the tremendous singing, not only during the solos and duets but the harmonies in the group numbers was a joy to listen to. The orchestra under his direction played beautifully and so pleased that Nick Greenhill on sound allowed all the actors to be heard clearly along with the orchestra. Having so many scenes to deal with the lighting was critical as many times we had follow on or overlapping scenes being performed in differing areas so full compliments to Gary Longfield for achieving this. The costumes were perfect whilst obviously being predominately the actors’ own and the quality military uniforms created a chilling reminder of a world many of us having never witnessed.

Davy played by Matt Bevan gave a wonderful performancewith excellent singing showing his depth of loyalty to family and friends with many scenes with his parents and his good friend Ally, emotion filled scenes with Yvonne and his bond with Ally showed a strength of friendship  whilst going through many ups and downs being torn between family friends and his future. Yvonne played by Catherine Harban gave an excellent performance with acting and singing of the highest order. I really enjoyed your duet with Davy of Misty Blue and Then I Met You. Ally played by Ashley Wilson, another excellent performance, with many powerful scenes with not only Davy but being torn by the love of his life Liz and many truly well performed songs, Make My Heart Fly and Letter from America and Life With You to name just three. Liz played by Suzanne Peach, Rab played by Phil Brownhill and his wife Jean played by Helen Kempton gave outstanding performances. The boredom of day today life, the trauma of family, being torn to the limits when realising Rab had fathered a child along with the most beautifully performed hospital scene bringing a tear to many eyes. This along with Rab Davy and Ally singing Life With You and Jean along with Eilidh singing Sunshine on Leith. Eilidh played by Lauren Turner gave a truly emotional performance along with your duet with Jean, a beautiful piece of theatre.

The production could not have been anything without the excellent cameo performances by the aptly named Featured Ensemble who performed many scenes of the highest order and along with the remaining cast all added to a most enjoyable evening of highest quality theatre. The fact you may not be mentioned by name takes nothing from your all-roundperformances. The cast of 28 should all be proud of the result and pure delight you sent your appreciative audience home with. I’m sure most of them were still revelling in your final iconic number 500 miles and humming or singing it whilst leaving the theatre. 

Once again thank you to everyone at STOS for yet another outstanding production and the hospitality shown to both Sylvia and myself

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