Inspired by both historical events and myths surrounding the fleeing of Bonnie Prince Charlie to the Outer Hebrides in 1746, this three-person play focuses on the story as seen through the eyes of Flora MacDonald, who helped him to safety. Billed as a comedy, there are many serious moments of retelling as well as some bordering on farce and panto-style thigh slapping.
The strength in this production is in the performances. Callum Murray has cast three very accomplished versatile actors who are supported by a wonderful violin player. Mark Priestley accompanies all the songs and provides occasional music during the play where needed. The songs, both original ones by Callum Murray and traditional, all drive the story as well as add a gorgeous melodic Scottish ambience to the whole thing, and are the best parts of the show: there could happily be more of them. In particular, the three part harmonies by the actors with pitch perfect blended vocals are an absolute goosebump-giving joy.
The multi-rolling actors: Sam Nixon, Phil Nair-Brown and Alasdair Carson-Sheard are superb and equally strong. They play each of their multi-role characters with depth and layers, making them feel full, rounded and real. Each of them are adept at accents, from: Scotland to France, from Ireland to Birmingham; all in the correct places. Sam plays Flora with perhaps a dubious moral reason for helping Bonnie Prince Charlie escape, despite the heroism that history now paints her with. She has a fierce intellect and seems forced by circumstance to live in a place which bores her, until an opportunity for advancement and money presents itself. Yet she plays this with such warmth that the audience is completely on her side.
Sam also plays Donalda and completely changes her physicality, making her more comedic, which works well. She is also the one who talks direct to the audience, in character. Phil plays the eponymous Bonnie Prince Charlie with a camp swagger borrowed from stereotype, but manages to make it look authentic. It’s hilarious just to watch him walk about. He also plays Samuel Johnson visiting Flora in the Tower of London with a completely different affectation, again showing lovely adaptability.
Alasdair matches both in skill: his strikingly emotion-filled opening song as Flora’s brother, tears welling in his eyes, was glorious. His multi characters including the Irish Captain are all played very differently. Their multi-rolling abilities, effectiveness and their connection with each other create far more for us to look at and react to which adds to the piece.
It does however have the feel of a play that is still in some development, or at least, hasn’t finished cooking yet. It would benefit from tightening up and some things trimming out in some places which lag, while it could happily have more songs which are the strongest parts of it. There are some things that don’t quite make sense such as all the dancing in the beginning, and Flora changing into modern dress at the end of the show: it’s not clear why this happened at all.
By the interval, an interesting story has been told, and it would have been a natural place to end it; the second half didn’t seem to flow with the rest of it, while it did have an entertaining fight scene. But the main issue is that the play doesn’t seem to have decided what it is. It seems to be trying to be a bit of everything: serious and emotional re-enactment, commentary on history, comedy and quite a bit of farce; and in trying to be broadly appealing to everyone and be everything, it stops being able to be something.
The marketing is pitched at being about Bonnie Prince Charlie yet he is a supporting character in this story, as it’s really focussed on Flora MacDonald. If this is a fictional retelling it gives more scope in the farce elements, but if it’s a historical retelling focussing on accuracy then that is another thing and some of the comedy misses its mark. This could be a story of that time period with some comedic elements, a la the Horrible Histories television series, and much of the first act was pointing in this direction. Overall, this is an interesting first incarnation of a play with potential, which could be significantly developed further.
The Actors, 11th October 2024
Outlandish! Runs until 13 October 2024
