A soaring soundscape meets a down-to-earth story
If, after reading the programme, you’re thinking “this show sounds a bit like a Scottish version of Brassed Off”, you’d be half right. It’s also about a brass band based in a historical mining town, and the community created around it, but with a very different tone and sensibility.
The protagonist Keli is a teenager under pressure – from her mother’s mental instability, from college and work, and from the relentless drive of the brass band leader to encourage Keli’s full potential as a tenor horn player, as the town brass band makes national finals for the first time in 75 years. However as the pressure builds, and the big night goes sideways, Keli has to retrace her steps in order to find her path forward.
This is done through a mystical older man who she meets down a coal mine, somewhere between her own sleep-deprived mind and an actual abandoned mine shaft, who she must explain herself to in order to find her truth. It’s an odd framing device, and doesn’t really ring true for the spirit of the story. Brass band is about community, and Keli’s revelation is that she wants to be a part of that community and her town – so why is so much time spent on her one-on-one conversation with a figment of her own imagination?
The actual story Keli tells is strong enough to stand alone – Liberty Black makes Keli bold, vulnerable, and proud, although constantly hampered by a quota of one F-bomb per line throughout the show, which quickly loses its impact. Particularly powerful are her scenes with her struggling mother, portrayed by Karen Fishwick, the pair carefully threading the needle between love, anger, blame and fear. Olivia Hematti also shines in a fantastic dual role as both Scottish coworker without any desire past the next Dragon Soop, and London nightlife girlie whose zest for life can overcome the worst night.
Really the star of the show is the music, composed by writer Martin Green and led by on-stage MD Louis Abbott. It is masterfully worked in throughout the show, as natural as air, blending the mystical with the heartbreaking and the final triumph, when at last we get to see the entire brass band on-stage along with the performers. The swell of the music is so beautiful it makes you mad that we haven’t had them on-stage the entire time, especially in a show whose entire thesis is the power in community and communal musical effort.
For a show that’s so convoluted, it’s a simple message, one that’s effectively pulled off through the talent of the cast, the humour of the script, and the beauty of the music. If the rest of the muddle could be pared back, there’s a star of a show there.