Duncan Harley

I n March 2020 Aberdeen Performing Arts switched off the lights in its three iconic venues: His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen Music Hall and the Lemon Tree amid the COVID-19 outbreak. Shows were cancelled and staff put on furlough. Lockdown was about to strike and the theatre doors slammed shut on 17 th  March ironically on the very eve of a week long run of A Monster Calls. You couldn’t really make it up. Cancellations of Buddy Holly, Once and Billionaire Boy swiftly followed and a Scottish Opera run of The Gondoliers described in glowing terms as "Sunny, funny and with more ‘tra la la las’ per square inch than any other opera in the canon" was swiftly consigned to the bottom of the Grand Canal. But, as they say, the show must go on and today Aberdeen Performing Arts has announced a set of stay-at-home projects and initiatives designed to keep the North-east connected and engaged in arts and culture during this strange pandemic era. Titled We’re here for you, the...

Sharp rhythms aside, and despite the expansive title strapline, this is really a fairly bland biopic of Gloria Fajardo AKA Gloria Estefan. Thinly woven character development leaves husband/manager Emilio, played here by George Ioannides, lagging. Portrayed as caring and charming and occasionally absurdly comedic, that’s about all you get of the essence of the man who made the star. Gloria, a splendid Philippa Stefani, and her mum and her gran hold the plot strings and the show is really about the Estefan brand. Plot-wise, an attempt is made to set the bands rise against a mid-20 th century geo-socio-political scene in the aftermath of the Cuban Revolution. Havana born Gloria’s family flee to Miami following Castro’s takeover. Dad Jose – Elia Lo Tauro, participates in the disastrous Bay of Pigs CIA inspired invasion of Cuba and is later exposed to a toxic chemical defoliant whilst serving in Vietnam. He gets ill and dies. A later traffic accident leaves Gloria wheel-ch...

The task of re-animating dead flesh is not for the faint hearted but, at some two hundred years distance from publication of the original novel, Mary Shelley’s tale of a latter-day Prometheus continues to fascinate. During the summer of 1816, Mary Shelley along with Lord Byron and Mary’s future husband – the poet Percy Shelley holidayed near Geneva. Freakish weather curtailed their plans and a ghost story competition ensued. Mary famously triumphed and in 1818 – aged twenty, she published the Gothic horror novel we now know as Frankenstein. She was later to record, ‘How I, then a young girl, came to think of, and to dilate upon, so very hideous an idea?’ Multiple takes on the story have emerged during the subsequent years and the nightmarish tale of science versus god has spawned a plethora of sensationally bonkers Hollywood films and theatre adaptations. Thankfully, this new but ambitious theatrical take by Rona Munro steers clear of the bolt-necked cadaver approach. The...

Ian Ashpitel and Jonty Stevens capture the brilliance of Morecambe & Wise in this homage to Eric and Ern and, if the PR fluff is to be taken seriously, you’ll feel like you’ve seen the real thing when you take in the show described in glowing terms as being: ‘Straight from their hit West End, Olivier nominated show "Eric and Little Ern" which Ian and Jonty wrote and performed in ... see them as Eric & Ern and be taken back to a world of sunshine and laughter. Their brilliant homage hits all the right notes! From Greig's Piano concerto to Mr Memory, "Arsenal!" A show full of Morecambe and Wise's most loved routines. Highly acclaimed for their portrayal of the legendry comedy duo, Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise, talented actors Ian Aspital [sic] and Jonty Stevens return in this new and fabulous show, crammed full of renditions of those famous comedy sketches, evokes memories of times when whole families would huddle around the telly on Sunday even...

With thanks to Rachel Campbell of Aberdeen Performing Arts One of the stars of a new drama about the lure and the risks of life on the ocean has spoken about her own life growing up in Aberdeen as the daughter of a deep-sea diver. Sophia  McLean is taking her first major Scottish role in  Lost at Sea, playing Shona, a young woman returning to her home village searching for answers about her fisherman father ’ s death. Lost at Sea,  by Moray writer Morna Young, comes to His Majesty ’ s Theatre, Aberdeen, from 9 to 11 May as part of its world premiere tour and Sophia is one of several cast members with links to the North East. She said:   “I’ m thrilled that my first major stage role in Scotland should be one about North East Scotland where I ’ m from, and that it ’ s written in the  Doric that I grew up with; living  in Aberdeen shire and visiting my Dad’s family  in  Elgin . “ When I was wee, you didn ’ t get often get maj...

Anti-Jewish pogroms in the not-so-far-off days of the Russian Empire were quite common and reached new heights during the period 1903 to 1906 when a series of state-sponsored ‘demonstrations’ affected many settlements in the Ukraine and in Bessarabia. Thousands of Jews were reportedly killed and many more thousands displaced as a wave of violence backed up by harsh laws targeted Russian Jews. Tsar Nicholas II was not known for his tolerance of either dissidents or minority groups and in the political turbulence of the times the Jews made for a convenient scapegoat. Married to a granddaughter of Queen Victoria he was referred to by Trotsky as having been “more awful than all of the tyrants of ancient and modern history”. Aberdeen’s Bon Accord Magazine was more succinct when, during a state visit to Balmoral it reported that “When the Tsar is at home, we do not hesitate to call him a tyrant. Then in heaven’s name, why – when he visits his grandmother-in-law, should we play th...

Cilla the Musical is based on BAFTA-winning writer Jeff Pope’s 2014 ITV series and tells the story of Black’s meteoric rise from ambitious Cavern Club cloakroom girl to chart-topping mega-star. Her sometimes turbulent relationships with Bobby Willis and the troubled Brian Epstein feature strongly alongside a no-holds-barred peek into Black’s less-savoury aspects. At a not-too-long two hours and fifty minutes, including interval, the show celebrates the triumphs and the tribulations of one of Epstein’s many stars and covers the greats from the Cilla back catalogue along with tribute numbers from the bands from the heady days of the Black magic. Gerry and the Pacemakers, The Mamas & the Papas and of course the Fab Four feature alongside a stream of biopics of the men behind the labels. Burt Bacharach, Ed Sullivan and Andrew Lancel’s splendidly vulnerable Brian Epstein feature alongside Alexander Patmore’s study of the dependably stoic Bobby Willis. Scotti...

Duncan Harley Reviews The last time I witnessed a Flying Pigs production was in far off 2016. Titled Dreich Encounter it failed to disappoint and I recall penning the immortal words “Father Ted meets Ivor Cutler utterly fails to describe this production adequately … reminiscent of Cutler’s Glasgow classic  “Life in a Scotch Sitting Room”, [Flying Pigs]  gently parody the folk memories of the North east.” Not much has happened to alter my opinion and this year’s splendidly polished offering features around thirty of what Flying Pigs term their best glaikit hits . Entitled Now That’s What I Call Methlick , and incorporating classic sketches involving the likes of Hilton John, The Bakery Wifies plus of course Mither: Nasal Hair , the show takes the form of a musical comedy/sketch review of all things Aberdonian. The opening set comprises classic numbers from The Buckie Drifters. As Craig Pike enthuses about his shingles a tartan-trewed backing group launch into...

We were at HM Theatre Aberdeen reviewing Sunshine on Leith last night. It’s a splendid show, perhaps the best I've seen in a good many years,  and I recall first seeing it in around 2008 although it may have been a wee bit earlier and maybe even in Dundee.  To be honest, it’s not really any better – how after all could you improve on such perfection.   The musical first saw light at Dundee Rep in far off 2003 following a review of the back catalogues of several Scottish bands by playwright Stephen Greenhorn. Awaking from some whisky-fuelled review session, Stephen found a post-it note, written in his own hand from the night before, with the words  “Proclaimers musical?”  written on it. Sunshine on Leith was born. Since then Sunshine has morphed into film then back to stage again and now features around eighteen original Proclaimers songs from the day. It’s quite a splendid production but then, as a reviewer I would say that wouldn’t I? Well no actual...

The brutal rape of young Hassan by sociopath Assef and his cohorts sets the tone of this touring stage adaptation of Khaled Hosseini’s best-selling novel. And the child-rape is not the only gut-wrenching scene from the book to be splashed all over the stage in front of the theatre audience. An execution by the Taliban, a bone-crunching beating or two and tales of death by landmine are intermingled with implicit references to paedophile driven child abduction and the stoning of adulterers. Not that the above events appeared gratuitous. Indeed, they are central to the telling of the tale. It’s just that they are shocking. The rape may well bear allegorical  significance in relation to the 1979 Soviet invasion and death by landmine is described as a good way for an Afghan to die. As for the stoning of adulterers and the abductions, well, these simply add to the overwhelming uneasiness which this production induces. Indeed, at the end one audience member was heard to comment th...

The writing of words is such a learning curve. And the publishing of words is at best fraught. I have said this before and will no doubt say it again, but that moment when the send button is pressed is such a bastard. Once the words have gone to wherever words go, the power and control has been given to another. An editor probably, and an overly pedantic editor might just be on the horizon. Or would it just be a friend intent on sorting out the mixed-up rhetoric. I have met both. Well, when I say met, I mean something much less. Since, some of the unmet editorial influences have been disastrous to say the least. And some of the met have been similar. Mind you, and on balance, those whom I have taken tea with have mainly excelled and taken good care of my words and intents. Leopard, Aberdeen Voice, Northern Scot are but to name but a few. Today, I was set to do battle with a new foe. Invited to review a Sondheim musical I was faced with a multitude of wordily issues via an unknown dig...