Anna Burnside reviews a ‘promising’ production with structural problems.
Many women, as we are regularly reminded via stirring folk song, don’t make history. Others pop up for one standout event then slip back into obscurity.
In Flora, writer Belle Jones takes Flora MacDonald, a classic example of category two, fleshes out her life and puts it in context. The plucky Highland lassie is front and centre while Bonnie Prince Charlie, the reason history noticed her in the first place, is a bit player.
So far, so promising. However, there is a structural problem in turning Flora’s story into a two and a half hour musical drama: the spicy bit, where she helps the Young Pretender escape disguised as her maid, is over before she is 20.
That leaves a lot of life to fill the second half. And, given that her life tracks the torrid history of the 18th-century Highlands, it’s not a cheery tale.
Telling her story mainly in song is a strong idea; these events are the meat and drink of narrative folk music. Putting the spoken elements into rhyming couplets—not so much. Annie Grace, as the older Flora who does the expositional heavy lifting, does her best with weird scansion and awkward rhymes, but the result is lumpy.
Director Stasi Schaeffer lets the tone jump all over the place. Lawrence Boothman camps it right up as Bonnie Prince Charlie, while Karen Fishwick, as young Flora, verges on the drippy.
The music makes up for the porrigey bits. Composers AJ Robertson and John Kielty show range and depth, bringing lyrics by Jones (with extras from Kielty) to life. The ensemble cast sing and play to huge effect with help from an on-stage keyboard player and drummer.
The biggest problem is the long second half, which is less historical epic and more misery memoir. Other plays have highlighted the horrors of the Clearances in less time and with more nuance.
In drama, as IRL, a long life with the best bit is behind you is not an easy ride. But the point of drama is to skim the longueurs and focus on the spicy bits. Some episodes don’t make the history books for a reason.
Flora toured at Eden Court in Inverness and The Pavillion in Glasgow. Its run has concluded. For further details, visit the production’s website.
Photo by Ewen Weatherspoon.
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