Anna Burnside reviews ‘a hugely impressive’ new production giving Scottish history a new musical treatment.
A Scotsman, an Englishman and a woman walk into a pub. Not the start of a joke but the beginning of a rap battle about William Wallace, played out with beats and rhymes.
Scotsman, who claims that the hero of Stirling Bridge is his great uncle 28 times removed, is keeping the myth alive. But Englishman - his character is called Sassenach - was bullied when Mel Gibson in blueface was in the cinema and then raises the stakes when he dons a red fur coat and becomes Edward l.
Woman - Wummin’ - is an agent provocateur, querying both points of view, asking where women are in the mythology and history.
Rob Drummond has written much more than a hip-hop Braveheart. At PPP length of around an hour, with a cast of three, it’s not quite a Scottish Hamilton. But it does use rap to ask some of the same questions about who gets remembered and whether the reality stands up to the dominant story.
Dave Hook, who wrote the music and lyrics, also performs as Scotsman. Drummond also gives him one of the show’s great lines: rap is just folk music with caps instead of cardigans.
Patricia Panther is a sparky Wummin’. Her character acknowledges how little feminist history has survived since the Middle Ages. Drummond and director Orla O’Loughlin work hard to make her more than set dressing.
The standout performance, however, comes from Manasa Tagica as Sassenach. He gets the biggest numbers and has the presence and voice to carry them off.
Wallace is a hugely impressive PPP in its current format. With the support of producers Raw Material behind it, let us hope this is only the beginning.
Wallace is at Oran Mor until September 6, 2025. It then performs at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh from September 9-13.
Photo by Tommy Ga-Ken Wan.
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