The Concert Party

This piece had been specially written to celebrate the 80th anniversary of VE Day. It tells of how the ordinary folk of Inverurie were affected by World War 2 and is centred round the Campbell family – a widowed mother, her four daughters and only son. It starts with the radio broadcast by Neville Chamberlain on 3 September 1939 announcing that Britain was at war with Germany and takes us through 1943 and then on to the end of the war in 1945. The young school children tearing around pretending to be soldiers fighting the Nazis become teenagers working in the local shops and factories and some even going off to fight in Europe whilst the womenfolk endure the hardships of bringing up families on meagre rations and living with the fear their menfolk – some only boys – may never come home. To do her “bit” for the war effort Mrs Jeannie Campbell decides to form a Concert Party to go around the local area to keep the spirits of her friends and neighbours up. Belinda Findlay as Mrs Campbell gave a perfect portrayal of a concerned citizen organising the concert party with always an encouraging word even when deeply concerned when she hadn’t heard news of her RAF son for sometime. Imogen Watt, as her down-to-earth eldest daughter Lizzie, is the narrator of the piece introducing us to the rest of the characters and also acts as MC for the concert party. Her delivery of the dialogue – all in the Doric – was immaculate and her strong singing voice was to the fore in the musical numbers. Acting as fellow MC was Peter May as her brother Pete who portrayed the change from carefree young man in a reserved occupation to a man whose heart tells him he should join the RAF to serve his country extremely well. Another extremely well presented character was that of Betsy Campbell, played with great enthusiasm by Lola Brown, whose dancing and fun loving ways added to the humour in the piece. Isla MacGillivary – Kinnaird as Helen Campbell gave a very strong performance of the young woman torn between the man she loves and her family when work threatens to take him away from Inverurie. So too did Carly Ferguson as Annie, the studious youngest Campbell daughter, who although young was always clear-headed and sensible. Strong support was given by Hannah Barnes and Holly Thomson as neighbour Mrs Murray and schoolteacher Miss Walker respectively. As did Elliott Robertson and Mika Drummond as Sandy McCabe and Andra McKellar, two young workers at the loco works. Maximus Boyle as Max, the Englishman “outsider”, gave a sensitive performance as he tried to woo Helen. Cameron Lawson and Evan Ansell as the tearaway youngsters Tammas Murray and Erchie Patterson added greatly to the fun in the piece. Adding their support were Eleri Blance (Chrissy), Sophie Deacon (June), Anastasia Onukwuli (Vera), Anna Young (Flora) and Iris Leonard (Laura). Songs of the era such as “We’ll Meet Again”, “White Cliffs of Dover” and “When the Lights Go On Again” were arranged by Alisdair Sneden and included some wonderful harmonies which were strongly and beautifully delivered by every member of the cast. The dialogue which was all in Doric was perfectly delivered even although the cast were not native speakers of the dialect .One of the many highlights for me was the hilarious skit where Andra (Mika Drummond) and Tammas (Cameron Lawson) were two wifies trying to outdo each other in the rationing stakes! Well done everyone at MSD Productions for once again delivering an excellent thought provoking but fun show. P.S. there was a happy ending as Pete returned from the war unscathed!

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