The Pavilion, Glasgow
Four stars
If ever an unsung Scottish heroine was crying out to be reimagined in a high-end historical drama it is the figure of Flora MacDonald. Here, after all, was a young woman living in eighteenth century Skye who stumbled into the history books after aiding and abetting the Jacobite cause when she helped smuggle Bonnie Prince Charlie out of the reach of government troops after he and his party were trounced at Culloden. Other than a 1948 film and a more recent appearance in an episode of Outlander, alas, Flora has remained an oddly neglected figure.
Cue Belle Jones’ suitably heroic musical romp, which arrives in Glasgow this week to reclaim Flora and give her the due she deserves after opening in Inverness last weekend. Here we see Flora across the decades, with Karen Fishwick embodying the younger woman, while Annie Grace watches over Flora’s place in history with a wizened eye. What follows in Stasi Schaeffer’s big-hearted production for the Genesis Theatre Company puts Flora at the centre of the action in Jones’ epic dramatic poem. Told in a rich mix of English and Gaelic rhyming couplets, this becomes something of a girl’s own story that sees her mark out a much bigger history.
The first half focuses on the Bonnie Prince Charlie incident, delivered by Schaeffer’s cast of eight in rollicking fashion. Lawrence Boothman’s Charlie resembles an old school Disneyesque parody of fecklessness in the face of adversity. This is powered along by AJ Robertson and musical director John Kielty’s live score, a folk, jazz and swing inflected musical potpourri played by Kielty at the piano, drummer James Grant and the versatile all singing cast on assorted fiddles, mandolin and accordion.
With Flora’s celebrity status seemingly guaranteed, the second act of both the show and her life is even more fascinating, as she and her husband on the make Allan of Kingsburgh, played by David Rankine, decamp to America. Here Flora’s fame opens doors before she finds herself compromised enough to strike out on her own. Beyond her public deeds, in Grace and Fishwick’s portrayals we see Flora as a wife, mother, daughter and ultimately her own woman, who finds independence in the face of an army of men who would exploit her story for their own glory.
There is sterling work from Lana Pheutan and Sally Swanson as Flora’s sister and mother, while Alan McHugh and Stephen Clyde complete the band of brothers. The end result is a rousing yarn punctuated by the heady chorales of Robertson and Kielty’s fractured showtunes that puts Flora back in the frontline of history.
The Herald, March 28th 2026
Ends
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