Sunshine on Leith
Pitlochry Festival Theatre/Capital Theatres
 

SUNSHINE ON LEITH is 15 years old and still the writer, Stephan Greenhorn, sits in on rehearsals and changes the script. Why? That doesn’t happen with The Sound Of Music or Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

The reason seems to be that the whole idea of mashing up Proclaimers songs with scenes from an Edinburgh version of Eastenders is still a work in progress.

This revival is headed for a run in the capital and has been newly seasoned with local jokes, like seasonal pantomime. But it shows its age.

How can characters go for coffee in Jenners when the whole store is closed?

Which war are the main characters being de-mobbed from?

Does this whole imaginary working-class community — who regularly indulge in pub sing-alongs that I for one have never witnessed in Scotland — exist in a fantasy twilight Caledonia where Craig and Charlie Reid are still cool and haven’t openly endorsed Alba, the political fiasco of a played-out Alex Salmond?

Given that the writer is there, can’t he bring it up to date and acknowledge that a stage musical isn’t a film and has other weapons, such as the ability to mock itself? The kind of popular Scottish entertainment that this production aspires to be badly needs a knowing nod to the audience and a contemporary riff.

When, for example, you hear “What can you do when minority means you” you long for a politically aware black person or a gay man to sing it, not an Alba supporter.

And when the same character proposes moving to Miami, which fairly semaphores that “Letter From America” is racing up the track-list, doesn’t this need a joke?

The heart of the production however is a scene when a stony-hearted wife sits at the hospital bed of her husband, unable to forgive him for an affair and an illegitimate child. Without the ability to express herself in words, she sings, in a transcendent interior monologue of emotion, the song Sunshine On Leith.

Alyson Orr, who has kept her character on a tight rein of defensive bitterness, pulls this off with such integrity, musicality and drama that for this scene alone you should see it. It’s a masterpiece, that far exceeds what the film achieved.

The restrained Pitlochry audience couldn’t help but hum along, and then collectively silenced themselves to savour the bitter-sweet perfection of the last verse. An unforgettable and tear-drenched experience.

This co production between Pitlochry and Capital Theatres is well-designed and full of talent and just needs to find its swagger if it is to touch your heart and speak to contemporary Scotland. And once it hits its stride it’ll be more than worth catching at the King’s.

But please – in Edinburgh we all know what the Hibs choir can do – so let’s have a roaring singalong of Sunshine on Leith to finish the night!

From June 7-18 2022 at King’s Theatre Edinburgh. Box Office: 0131 529 6000, https://bookings.capitaltheatres.com, then continues at Pitlochry Festival Theatre until October 1 2022. Tickets: www.pitlochryfestivaltheatre.com, or Just the Ticket on the main street in Pitlochry, or by calling box office on 01796 484626.