Catholic School Girls go Wild! The Choir Trip to the Capital goes badly wrong.
Funny, Sad and Raucously Rude. A play about singing, sex and sambuca.
With music by Handel, Bach and ELO!
Adapted from Alan Warner's brilliant novel. Six girls on the cusp of change. Love, lust, pregnancy and death all spiral out of control in a single day. Warner's blisteringly funny dialogue ends in fireworks (literally). A musical play about losing your virginity and finding yourself.
Vicky Featherstone returns to direct at the National Theatre of Scotland, with Billy Elliot author, Lee Hall, and music arranger and supervisor Martin Lowe (Once) to create a tribute to being young, lost and out of control.
A co-production between the National Theatre of Scotland and Live Theatre.
Age recommendation: 16+
It’s never quite clear exactly what era the play is set in, it’s far too long and the storytelling sometimes lacks basic clarity. But the singing is sublime and the way that these girls own their lives and refuse to live them any way other than to the full is both heartbreaking and touching.
In part, though, you're just marvelling at these actresses: all gutsy, gung-ho and flat-out funny, but also tender and anxious and poignant. It's as good an ensemble as you'll ever find.
Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour provides a vibrant picture of young women on the cusp of adulthood trying to have fun, sing out, and live a little before reality takes away the last of their childhood joie de vivre.
Ultimately, this funny and salacious tale is an affirming piece that points up life’s contradictions and the many facets of people’s lives that hover beneath respectability. Most important, it holds hope and redemption as these young women find out unexpected aspects of themselves as they step out in the world. But "...every little thing’s gonna be alright”!
As fearlessly played by Melissa Allan, Caroline Deyga, Karen Fishwick, Kirsty MacLaren, Frances Mayli McCann and Dawn Sievewright, it is far more serious as the girls minesweep every little bit of life they can in a work that's both anthem and elegy a getting of wisdom that celebrates life even as it breaks your heart.
This is what theatre is and should be about, its a piece that empowers women and puts them firmly in charge. Our Ladies of Succour is raw, energetic, touching, compelling and very, very funny and you would be stupid if you didn’t try and catch it out on tour later this year.
Thrilling for the first 60 minutes but losing impact over the concluding 40.
While some of its lines could be sharper and the ending meanders a little, Our Ladies is a glorious piece of theatre, and a poignant comedy about growing up and breaking free.
Our Ladies Of Perpetual Succour is a massive beast of a thing, beautifully crafted in its ragged humanity and utterly irresistible.
The girls' voices are undoubtedly gorgeous—with spine-tingling harmonies on the classical pieces and an emotive cover of Bob Marley's 'No Woman, No Cry'. It just feels overlong, overwrought...and a little bit compromised.
It may not reach the commercial heights of Billy Elliot, but, with its often extremely funny, rapid-fire, no-holds-barred dialogue and high octane performances, Our Ladies looks set to become a popular hit.
Its raucous, earthy Scottish humour more than translates to an English audience.
Billy Elliot writer Lee Hall's new play Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour is going to be a riot
Is Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour about Catholic choir girls behaving badly a blockbuster in the making?
Lemon Tree, Aberdeen from Tuesday September 15, 2015, until Wednesday September 16, 2015. More info: www.boxofficeaberdeen.com
Eden Court Theatre, Inverness from Friday September 18, 2015, until Saturday September 19, 2015. More info: www.eden-court.co.uk
Adam Smith Theatre, Kirkcaldy from Tuesday September 22, 2015, until Wednesday September 23, 2015. More info: www.attfife.org.uk
Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh from Friday September 25, 2015, until Saturday September 26, 2015. More info: www.bruntontheatre.co.uk
On Tour, from Thursday June 30, 2016, until Saturday July 9, 2016.
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