Writer: Stephen Greenhorn
Featuring the songs of The Proclaimers
Director: Elizabeth Newman
Musical Director: Richard Reeday
From the off, there’s something significantly different to the 2023 regeneration of Pitlochry’s revival of their 2022 staging ofSunshine on Leith. There’s an immediate spark of confidence and musical magic, a tempting and rare kind, as music and creative drama merge without friction. Opening with The Sky Takes the Soul in Afghanistan, before whisking audiences to a jaunt down Leith Walk, and catapulting us through a musical adventure. There’s a charge and refined aptitude to Elizabeth Newman’s direction with a thrust of energy from the new cast.
The injection and commitment to the evolution of this Scottish musical are apparent in Stephen Greenhorn’s tweaks to the Sunshine of Leith script: retaining the charming (if conventional) narrative, but gone are the gags about Jenners and the entire tale is lifted into a whirlwind of stage magic. Every element audiences loved remains: a quartet of love stories, three couples, and a final communal adoration for Leith, Scotland, and affection. With everyone’s lives colliding, Ally and Davy’s return from the Army to a now changed, more trendy, and slightly unfamiliar Edinburgh and Leith comes with blossoming relationships and re-kindled old ones. At the core is Rab and Jean’s thirtieth marriage anniversary, parents to Davy, who begins dating an English NHS worker, Yvonne, and his sister Liz, who is seeing Ally.
For a relatively clean-cut romantic drama, the fascination and tightness of interest hinge on the inclusion of songs from The Proclaimers’ repertoire centring on tenderness, marriage, and every difficult decision which comes alongside. The twelve-strong cast, most performing exceptionally tightly orchestrated live instrumentals, dip in and out to lift the tone of scenes and flesh out the scale of the show. The pitching and sound for the show are remarkably adept, though one or two of the performers allow their passions to push voices a touch out of synch with the harmonies, but not enough to detract from the overall experience. Likely just swept up in the emotions of it all, and who can blame them with choice numbers like Hate My Love For You,I’m On My Way,orLetter From America.
Perhaps the most crucial remnant from the previous production is the retention of Alyson Orr as Jean and the delivery of the production’s namesake,Sunshine on Leith. To flip a room so decisively from cheers of mirth to one of a shared acknowledgement of life’s fragility is remarkably done in every aspect. Yes, heart-breaking sorrow, but directed with such finesse and command, the silence following is nothing but a sign of respect for the performers on stage and those no longer in the audience.
Returning too is Keith MacPherson as Jean’s husband Rab, and though much of MacPherson’s delivery remains the same, there is certainly a touch more nuance in moments and a dip away from the more exasperated comedy. But the laughs are there, and necessary, to offer that authentic dimension of the Scots’ humour – a smile and a laugh to cover up all that strife and pain. Their continued chemistry with Orr, particularly in a rousingly captivating rendition of Oh, Jeanis matched with MacPherson’s mixture of tenderness and paternal hokeyness with Robbie Scott, Fiona Wood, and the revelations of his connection to Jessica Dive’s character, Eilidh.
A stark change from Scott’s largely silent role inGroup Portrait for a Summer Landscape, what a bloody treat to hear their exceptionally unique and well-defined vocals carry such emotional integrity in their performance: comedic or poignant. Similarly, Finlay Bain expands on Ally’s role with an authentic air of difficulty as Ally adjusts to his home, no longer as familiar as it once was. Rounding out the principal four are Wood and Sinead Kenny, the pair finding a balance within the script’s melodramatic moments.
Across the board, the production sails into an excellence that the previous show (as engaging and splendid as it was) let slip through the net. The revised upper staging, adapted from Adrian Ree’s original design, is a less static and blocked model of the city above Leith, now a less in-your-face and natural scale of the view from the bottom of the walk. The momentum of it all is carried through the ensemble, consisting of James Dawoud, Jake Reynolds, Callum Marshall, Charlotte Grayson, and a terrifically enthusiastic Trudy Ward.
Pitlochry’s previous production ofSunshine on Leith revitalised Scotland’s beloved musical; this year’s re-staging perfected it. To capture the complexity of love in various forms: romantic, paternal, familial, even national, is a tremendously tricky task – to do so while engaging with such an intensive working-class core, all parcelled with the brutal romanticism of the Proclaimer’s lyrics? Well, it’s the best damn gift Scotland could ask for this time of year.
Runs until 23 December 2023 | Image: Fraser Band