King’s Theatre, Edinburgh
Five stars
It was coincidence that the latest Save Leith Walk
public meeting, held to attempt to see off predatory property developers from
bulldozing away local businesses, was on the opening night of the homecoming
dates for Stephen Greenhorn’s Proclaimers-fired musical drama. Both events,
however, laid bare the heart and soul of a neighbourhood that retains its
independence on every level.
All the Leith iconography is present and correct in
Greenhorn’s everyday epic, from the Dockers Club to Robbie’s bar. With the show
given a fresh lease of life by the 2014 film version, James Brining’s eleventh
anniversary revival for West Yorkshire Playhouse remains a masterful
construction. Focusing on Ally and Davy, two ex-squaddies returning from Afghanistan,
the script weaves a set of soap opera style scenarios around the pair’s
respective love lives with Liz and Yvonne, as well as the complications of Davy and
Liz’s parents’ thirty-year marriage.
Greenhorn’s writing is subtle and simple, bringing
austerity culture, post-industrial decline and NHS cuts into the picture
without ever banging a drum. Brining’s production is a big gorgeous ensemble
piece led by Paul-James Corrigan, John McLarnon, Neshla Caplon and Jocasta
Almgill as the central couples. In what becomes an emotional rollercoaster, Emily-Jane
Boyle’s choreography is as street-smart as a latter-day West Side Story. The
show’s drive, of course, comes from Craig and Charlie Reid’s remarkable songbook,
beautifully sung by the cast to David Shrubsole’s chamber folk arrangements
played by a six-piece band.
Most of all, Greenhorn’s play is a love letter, not
just to the district that sired it, but to working class communities just like
it that are having their gloriously messy souls ripped out. At the moment, Sunshine
on Leith is a thing of joy and heartbreak that’s very much about now.
Developers kill that at their peril.
The Herald, May 25th 2018
ends
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