Royal Highland Hotel, Inverness, Monday 7 June 2004 then touring

Michael Marra and Liz Lochhead

DONKEYS IN BATHS, kittens in buckets and Alsatian Dogs in pointed shoes abounded in the appropriately named show. “In Flagrant Delicht” featured the seemingly oddly matched duo of Michael Marra, a musical legend from Dundee, and Glasgow writer supremo Liz Lochhead.  A word of praise for the Highland Festival first, in staging the show in the more intimate surroundings of the Hotel ballroom, rather than the halls of Eden Court, a setting which made for the intimate ambience that the show required.

The sell out audience relished the delichts dealt out to them, in a show which could be described as ‘easy listening’ rather than out-and-out comedy. The audience was taken on a gentle roller coaster ride, covering topics which took them from hysterical laughter to poignant lump in the throat, within an instant.

The show, a cross between a series of character mono/duologues, to poems of grief and longing is a curious mix of genres which weaves together medleys of songs and words in a manner which suggests that they have always belonged together. It is obvious that the pair love what they do and enjoy working together on the stage, bouncing impromptu stage asides and repartee off each other as the show progresses.

No one would describe Marra as having the voice of an angel, but it is that indefinable and entirely gravelly tone which he possesses which make his music so completely spellbinding, taking us from the hilarious ‘Frieda Callows Visit to the Tay Bridge Bar’ to the haunting rendition of ‘Green Grow the Rashes O’ – a rendition which became to me a true interpretation of how Burns intended it to be sung.

The audience travelled from the housing schemes of Dundee and Glasgow, to the berry fields of Blairgowrie and from there to the ‘16 football teams from South Uist who all wear Celtic strips bar one who has a balaclava’ and from there to the chained up swings of a Lewis Sunday afternoon in the strains of ‘Lazy Sunday in Central Scotland’ when – according to Lochhead – there are other-worldly pursuits to be pursued. Lochhead’s hilarious portrayal of the artist’s model cum French artist, ‘Suzanne Valedon’, was a visual and auditory delight – Glasgow’s ‘rolling r’s’ adapt well to a Parisian accent.

The second half of the show turned to the topics of grief, forgiveness, and comfort in moments of need, and the audience moved comfortably with the pair’s vivid and at times subtly erotic word imagery in poems such as ‘What the Pool said on Midsummer’s Day’ matched perfectly by the atmospheric strands of melodies from Marra’s keyboard.

The genius of this show is the manner in which it is apparent that the two writers of this poetry – and Marra’s songs are indeed poetry in his own inimitable style – write with passion and feeling on the same subjects of death, love, human relationships and football, and each imparts his own delightful flavour to the material. Marra’s dry wit is a perfect foil for the sassy characters Lochhead produces from beneath her tea towels (her portrayal of the three types of ‘Glasgow Wummin’ was a comedy classic) and the final duet was a visual AND comic treat as the pair both donned tea towels and, in the case of Marra, a wig, to become fruit pickers from Blairgowrie. This, incidentally, is where the donkey in the bath comes in….

Marra and Lochhead have uncovered new ways of weaving together a blend of thought-provoking words with a music which not only enhances the words but also establishes itself as an equal partner. As for the duet encore of Hoagy Carmichael’s ‘Two Sleepy People’? – Inverness has been waiting for it!

In Flagrant Delicht can be seen at the following venues:
An Tobar, Tobermory, Tuesday 8 June 2004
Easdale Hall, Easdale, Wednesday 9 June 2004
Sabhal Mor Ostaig, Isle of Skye, Thursday 10 June
Village Hall, Plockton, Friday 11 June
Community Hall, Glenuig, Saturday 12 June
Durness Hall, Durness, Monday 14 June
Town Hall, Dingwall, Tuesday 15 June
The Ceilidh Place, Ullapool, Wednesday 16 June
Pentland Hotel, Thurso, Thursday 17 June
Orkney Arts Theatre, Kirkwall, Saturday 19 June
Village Hall, Lochinver, Tuesday 22 June
Birnam House Hotel, Dunkeld, Wednesday 23 June
Corran Halls, Oban. Thursday 1 July 2004

© Fiona MacKenzie, 2004