A workshop production, showing for one evening only, at The Greenwood Theatre, Kings Collge London, Sunday 3rd August 2014.
Book & Concept by James Paterson after the novel by Elizabeth Byrd.
Music by Jennifer Whyte.
Lyrics by Robin Whyte.
Rehearsed and put together in one week, I was not expecting such a polished performance.
The sizeable cast, despite many holding and occasionally referring to scripts, held me captive throughout with the confident delivery of both prose and song.
The simple use of the staging area, combined with minimal scenery and projected images served the production well, enabling the audience to focus fully on the story of 'Moira McFlaherty', played by Zoe Rainey with a sense of truth and depth of feeling, and her family during the Irish Potato Famine of 1845.
The true horrors of this period were played out well, with care and thought, interspersing the rawness of fear, starvation and death with humour, acts of kindness and love.
To pick out but a few moments and/or actors for praise is difficult due to the superb quality of the assembled cast; however it would be amiss of me if I didn't try!
David Haydn as 'Tyrone Schwartz' was outstanding in his rendition of the lilting Irish folk song Come Sing Me A Song. Another heartfelt song was Pick Any Star, sung by Matthew Gent as 'Liam Lennihan', the love interest of Moira.
A special mention must also go to Joanna Riding, whose spitting and screaming 'Miss Finnigan' was played with such precise hatred, Michael Joseph's 'Jesus Finnigan', the loveable rogue with a liking for a drink and storytelling (The Pudden Song being another Act 1 highlight) and the comedic styling of Karen Mann and Anne Smith as 'Annie Dumbie' and 'Granny Cullen' respectively.
Musically, The Famished Land was spot on. The mix of instruments worked well to transport the audience and gave an authentic Irish feel to the production.
There were a few bars of a song in the 2nd act which brought to mind the musical CATS, a fact that detracted slightly from the scene, and for me the song Trio didn't quite work as the 3 parts merged rather than stood separately, but this may have been a sound issue.
However this did not detract from a superb score which contained some musical numbers which I left the theatre humming.
All in all, The Famished Land was an enjoyable and engaging piece of musical theatre and has the potential, given the right circumstances, and deserves to do well.
Book & Concept by James Paterson after the novel by Elizabeth Byrd.
Music by Jennifer Whyte.
Lyrics by Robin Whyte.
Rehearsed and put together in one week, I was not expecting such a polished performance.
The sizeable cast, despite many holding and occasionally referring to scripts, held me captive throughout with the confident delivery of both prose and song.
The simple use of the staging area, combined with minimal scenery and projected images served the production well, enabling the audience to focus fully on the story of 'Moira McFlaherty', played by Zoe Rainey with a sense of truth and depth of feeling, and her family during the Irish Potato Famine of 1845.
The true horrors of this period were played out well, with care and thought, interspersing the rawness of fear, starvation and death with humour, acts of kindness and love.
To pick out but a few moments and/or actors for praise is difficult due to the superb quality of the assembled cast; however it would be amiss of me if I didn't try!
David Haydn as 'Tyrone Schwartz' was outstanding in his rendition of the lilting Irish folk song Come Sing Me A Song. Another heartfelt song was Pick Any Star, sung by Matthew Gent as 'Liam Lennihan', the love interest of Moira.
A special mention must also go to Joanna Riding, whose spitting and screaming 'Miss Finnigan' was played with such precise hatred, Michael Joseph's 'Jesus Finnigan', the loveable rogue with a liking for a drink and storytelling (The Pudden Song being another Act 1 highlight) and the comedic styling of Karen Mann and Anne Smith as 'Annie Dumbie' and 'Granny Cullen' respectively.
Musically, The Famished Land was spot on. The mix of instruments worked well to transport the audience and gave an authentic Irish feel to the production.
There were a few bars of a song in the 2nd act which brought to mind the musical CATS, a fact that detracted slightly from the scene, and for me the song Trio didn't quite work as the 3 parts merged rather than stood separately, but this may have been a sound issue.
However this did not detract from a superb score which contained some musical numbers which I left the theatre humming.
All in all, The Famished Land was an enjoyable and engaging piece of musical theatre and has the potential, given the right circumstances, and deserves to do well.