One of the joys of fringe festivals is the opportunity to catch new works in an early stage of development. What a pleasure then to find Shackleton among this year's offerings. Presented by the Rickmansworth Players, this 15 minute online taster of a brand new musical is slickly edited and confidently performed.
There is clever use of photography and voice over to set the scene, while multi-frame face to camera shots of the actors in full voice, both solo singing and forming a tightly harmonic chorus, give an excellent insight into the overall musical style. More Lloyd-Webber than Sondheim or Herman, the melodies are light classical in feel with gentle open chords and sweetly slushy arpeggios in Andrea Rae's superb piano accompaniment.
The story outlines the epic journey faced by Sir Ernest Shackleton and his crew during their Antarctic expedition. The music captures in its frequent minor strains the futility and despair associated with what we as an audience already know is a journey doomed to grim failure. Yet there is something heroic too in the anthemic quality of certain songs like The Ones We Leave Behind which reminds of the courage and self-sacrifice of those involved, in pursuit of a goal far bigger than themselves. I'm sure echoes with our own contemporary situation could be teased out in a full production.
Lyric writing, unlike poetry, needs to get its message across to its audience under the very tight constraints of rhythm, pitch and dramatic context. There is here an over reliance on repetition to meet those challenging demands. More variety, wit and originality in the lyrics would give the songs a richer depth, enticing the listener back for second helpings.
Overall, though, what a wonderful achievement to have come out of lockdown. Massive congratulations to Matthew Knowles (Book and Lyrics) and Simone Chiappi (Music) for producing such a compelling introduction to what I'm sure will be a magnificent new musical. I look forward to seeing a fully fledged production!
Thank you very much for your review. It means a lot to us. One of the reasons we wanted to show the audience our work at this early stage is to gather all the possible feedback to improve and make our musical better. This review is exactly what we were looking for. Thanks, Simone
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome! Good luck with the further development of the musical, I look forward to seeing a full production!
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