We Will Rock You

For her directorial debut Kathleen Irving-Lewis did a marvellous job of bringing to the stage the myriad characters included in Ben Elton’s sometimes pantomimesque script of the story of lost rock music based round the music of Queen. The basic scaffold set, along with atmospheric lighting, set the scene of a rebellious underground movement perfectly. The first night full house audience were fully immersed in the story from the opening notes of the onstage band right through to the rousing full company rendition of “Bohemian Rhapsody”. Robert Tullock, as the hero of the piece Galileo, showed strong acting skills and had a good singing voice as shown in his opening solo “I Want to Break Free” and his lead in many of the other numbers. Daisy Flett, as the feisty, independent Scaramouche. was excellent with a powerful singing voice - I particularly liked her rendition of “Somebody to Love” - and great acting. The hate/love relationship between her and Galileo was well portrayed by both actors and their more reflective duets “Who Wants to Live Forever” and “Hammer to Fall” were delightful. Another strong pairing were Einar Towrie’s kickboxing Brit (loved the pink fur jacket!) and Savanah Sutherland as the level-headed Oz with their rendition of “I Want It All” and Oz’s “No One But You (Only the Good Die Young)” being memorable. Gemma Harcus’s powerful voice showed she was a natural to take the role of the protagonist in the piece Killer Queen with her renditions of “Killer Queen” and “Don’t Stop Me Now”. Dominic Buttifant gave a strong performance as her second-in-command Khashoggi. Audun Towrie too gave a strong performance as Buddy, leader of the rebel Bohemians. The ensemble, in their many guises as Ga Ga Kids, Teen Queens and Bohemians, sang well with some beautiful harmonies in numbers such as “These Are The Days of Our Lives” and “Bohemian Rhapsody”. The 8 piece band – set on multi levels stage right – handled the various styles of music well but came into their own in the more rock style numbers. Well done everyone for delivering another great show to the people of Orkney.

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