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Oor Wullie: The Musical

Dundee Rep

Four stars


 Oor Wullie without his bucket is like Christmas without a comic book annual. Dundee Rep’s revival of Noisemaker duo Scott Gilmour and Claire McKenzie’s musical reimagining of Scotland’s’s favourite cartoon boy is something of a double whammy in this respect. 

 

As our spiky haired hero has his bucket poached from beneath him, prodigal daughter Nilo returns to Dundee to see her dad, though not before she is gifted an Oor Wullie annual by a mysterious woman on the train who goes by the name of Ms Watkins. As the book’s cover star steps out of the annual’s pages and into Nilo’s domain, Wullie rides again. 

 

Andrew Panton’s production has been substantially rejigged since its first outing in 2019. While the quest for the missing bucket by Wullie and his pals remains the same, the changes in plot and characters maintain the show’s very meta take on family and friendship. 

 

Much of this comes through the script’s Peter Pan like portrayal of Wullie. As played by Kyle Gardiner, his alliance with Grant McIntyre’s Wee Eck, Bailey Newsome’s Soapy Souter and Elliot McLean’s Boab gives them the timeless air of an Auchenshoogle Dead End Kids. 

 

As they take on the twin forces of Basher and PC Murdoch, they are joined by Beth Robb Adams’ can-do Primrose, who forms a sisterly alliance with Nilo.  Nilo’s rites of passage as embodied by a sparky RoMaya Jey comes from recognising herself as ‘Scottish and mair’, and finally getting to know her long distance dad, Daniyal, played by Taqi Nazeer. 

 

Mairi Barclay’s Basher has the sartorial elegance of a John Byrne factory girl and a patter to match as both her and Anthony Strachan’s PC Murdoch join the gang. Ann Louise Ross’ mysterious Ms Watkins, meanwhile, is like a runaway Agatha Christie intent on rewriting her own script.

 

At the show’s heart are Gilmour and McKenzie’s series of tradio-friendly tweenage bangers. A rousing finale suggests that Auchenshoogle - and Dundee - are safe in the hands of Wullie and co, however their story turns out.


The Herald, December 3rd 2024

 

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