Charming combination of myth and musical storytelling.
“Nessie” is tale of full of heart, conviction and wonderful puppetry. Produced by Capital Theatres and Pitlochry Festival Theatre, this production is the first musical taken to through to full production, via the Musicals Commissioning Hub, set up in 2021 to support Scottish writers and creatives, and inspire new voices.
Created by Shonagh Murray, and directed by Beth Morton, Nessie is a story based in Bruachness, a village on the banks of Loch Ness, where the myth of a monster has long been told. We meet Mara MacDougall (played by Caitlin Forbes), an enthusiastic biology student full of fun facts, who’s feeling a bit alone in the world after her best friend has moved away, and being picked on by others in her class, notably Ally Campbell (Louis Newman). Her engineer mother Emma (Alyson Orr) is working at the local hydroelectric plant, and having her own issues with local animosity, fired up by Murdo (Keith Macpherson).
A chance encounter with the local wildlife, Nessa, our “monster” (Eden Barrie, plus Louis as support), Oggie the dam-building otter (Keith), and Heather the heron (Alyson), means Mara’s not only in with a chance for the most amazing biology project ever, but also to stand up for what she believes in, preserve the loch habitat, and to heal some old wounds along the way. The storyline is thoughtfully pitched for the younger audience, covering some big topics such as green energy, without lecturing to them, as well as being entertaining for the adults too. Some lovely comical asides from Oggie added well-timed levity too. Without spoiling the storyline, there’s a beautiful signposting at the climax of the show relating to Nessa and her future life, which I thought showed particular care towards the young audience.
The cast of five cover an extraordinary amount of work over the course of the performance. In addition to the acting roles, instruments including accordion, fiddle, guitar and flute are played to accompany the 10 original songs. Not to mention the puppetry of Nessa, Oggie and Heather. There has been a great deal of attention to the way the animals should move across land and water, leading to a remarkably realistic rendering. Some tiny little background touches, such as Heather grooming Oggie with her beak, added additional depth of natural movement, and nicely counterbalanced other moments where the characters were more playful and silly. This was also reflected in the song balance too, where more up-tempo numbers, were balanced with the more dramatic ones. Mara’s Reel was a particular personal favourite, along with Same as Me, and The Call. In the opening numbers, some of the vocal levels were at risk of fighting against the instruments, but this levelled out quickly as the show progressed.
Natalie Fern’s set design was deceptively simple at first appearance, but through cunning use of space and props, covered scenes in school, the loch banks, a town meeting, and underwater, and the movement between the locations was fluid. Look out for the appearance of some additional bubbles to add to the atmosphere!
With a run time of 80 minutes, I did wonder if this might be a little too long for some of the under 10s in the audience, but it’s a testament to the strength of the production and quality of the storytelling, that this was received with rapt attention by the crowd. This is a production that will appeal to a variety of ages, with universal themes that have never been more relevant in the modern world.