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Nessie

The Studio, Edinburgh

Three stars

 

Something is stirring in the depths of Loch Ness, and there’s a lot more making waves than the new hydroelectric plant that’s just opened in Shonagh Murray’s new family friendly musical. This is something would be junior marine biologist Mara finds out for herself when she discovers an entire community of little and not so little creatures hiding just below the surface where they deal with all the junk thrown into the water. 

 

As well as a dam-building otter called Oggie and a friendly heron named Heather, there is a timorous beastie called Nessa, a one of a kind creation that evolution seems to have forgotten about as she finds shelter in increasingly stormy waters. While Mara’s mother Emma, an engineer at the plant, is forced to defend its workings in the face of nimbyish opposition, Mara’s school project sees her bullied by a boy named Ally. The tourist myth of the Loch Ness Monster, meanwhile, runs ever wilder in an already ecologically unstable environment. 

 

If all this sounds a lot for young audiences to take in over the play’s eighty minute duration, rest assured that while  Murray’s fantastical tale deals with some pretty big ideas, it does so with an easy charm designed to captivate. Much of this in Beth Morton’s production is down to Ella Mackay’s puppets, brought to cuddlesome life under Ross Mackay’s guidance by Alyson Orr as Heather, Keith Macpherson as Oggie and Eden Barrie with Louis Newman as Nessa. With the quartet doubling up in human roles, Caitlin Forbes as Mara provides the play’s beating heart as she bonds with Nessa through their shared sense of being alone. All this is brought home in Murray’s jaunty folk songs sung and played by the cast.

 

As the first product of the Musicals Commissioning Hub, a partnership between Festival Theatre managers Capital Theatres and Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Nessa looks set to avoid extinction for some time yet in this wry statement on outsiderdom that comes with hidden depths.


The Herald, April 4th 2025

 

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