OneTouch Theatre, Eden Court, Inverness 22 May 2009

Voiceworks

THESE DAYS, everyone seems to be talking about cocktails, and very enjoyable they can be as well. Take the pick of singers in the Highlands, add a few of the best pupils of an inspired vocal coach, stir them together and strain into the OneTouch Theatre, and what have you got? Voiceworks – the Invergordon-based creation of the energetic, imaginative and ubiquitous Colin Lewis – an amateur group aiming for professional standards.

Their latest offering is a sort of triple bill, beginning with a showcase of songs by the ensemble as well as individual members, and followed by two contrasting acts from the Harnick and Bock show, The Apple Tree, that ran for over a year on Broadway in the mid-60s, although perhaps it benefited from the success of their previous hit, Fiddler On The Roof.

But let’s look first at the opening part of the show, what Colin Lewis called “A Selection of Sinful Secular Songs for the Stage”, and maybe the sibilant alliteration was meant to compensate for the part of The Apple Tree that was not being performed, Mark Twain’s take on Adam, Eve and the Serpent. The Ensemble paraded onto the stage with military precision, the gentlemen in their dinner jackets and the ladies elegant in an array of colourful gowns. Mack The Knife from Kurt Weill’s Threepenny Opera was accurate and precise, with every word heard clearly at the back of the theatre and a nice balance between threat and humour. Then they all paraded off again in single file, so that eight of the company could turn round and parade back on to the stage to sing Matona, mia cara by Orlando Lassus, the sixteenth century Franco-Flemish songsmith, about the intentions of a German soldier and the Italian object of his desires. No translation was needed to understand what was going on. Then it was “Left Turn. Quick March” and the octet paraded off the stage again.

Forgive me if I climb onto my hobby-horse for a moment. A couple of months ago I castigated Inverness Opera for the pauses between scenes in Anything Goes that prevented the performance flowing properly and sent the audience half-asleep. Sorry, Voiceworks, but all that parading on and off was exactly the same.

I know that this selection was just that, a selection and not a dramatised performance, but did anyone else wonder whether it was a bit like a soirèe musicale and it would have been nice if the members of the Ensemble who were not actually singing stayed on the stage and made a party of the whole performance? Anyway, winge over.

Joseph Kelly was the first of the soloists with Arise, ye subterranean winds from Purcell’s Tempest. It’s not easy to think of Purcell as a writer of bawdy songs, but there it is. Joseph’s is still a young voice, tuneful but the strength and projection have yet to be developed. Next up, after the march off and on with pause, was Julie Keen singing Non so piu from Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro, sung well but where was Cherubino’s teenage angst?

We stayed with Mozart for the famous duet from Cosi Fan Tutte, Ah, che tutta in un momento with Fiordiligi and Dorabella singing to each other rather than to the audience in the guise of Alison MacLeod and Aileen Hendry, two experienced performers with good voices.

The last of the soloists was Kathleen Cronie as the maid, Blonde, from Mozart’s The Seraglio, teaching the eunuch Osmin the art of seduction. Kathleen’s singing was the first of her skills being shown, with a voice that was in the upper reaches of the soprano register. Later in the evening she was to pick up the conductor’s baton.

Then on trooped the full ensemble for a top class rendition of John Rutter’s version of Shakespeare’s It was a lover and his lass. Off they marched, but it was an about turn by Kathleen Cronie, Colin Lewis, Alan MacLeod and Caroline Warburton to sing Verdi’s stunning quartet from Rigoletto when the jester promises to take revenge on the philandering Duke for the way his daughter, Gilda has been treated.

The first part was brought to a triumphant conclusion by Liz McLardy and Elaine Shearer with the duet Sui suo capo aggravi un Dio from Anna Bolena by Donizetti. Belief was suspended for a few minutes. Was this really an amateur performance in the OneTouch Theatre? It would have done credit to the stage of the Theatre Royal in Glasgow.

Then a programmed and justified pause while the stage was adjusted, props set and the piano trio in the pit was augmented to an octet with conductor Kathleen Cronie. The Lady or The Tiger? is the second part of Harnick and Bock’s The Apple Tree trilogy. All three pose the same question of what happens when we get something that we think we want, only to discover that we don’t really want it after all, or do we?

In the Court of King Arik, sung by Colin Lewis, all trials are fair, or so we are told by the Balladeer, Alan Macleod. Prisoners have a free choice of two doors to go through. Behind one is a hungry tiger, and you are assumed to be guilty; behind the other is a beautiful lady, you are innocent and you have to marry her. That’s a choice?

The King’s daughter, Princess Barbara, sung by the portrait in scarlet that was Sasha Devine, loves Sanjar, the Captain of his Army, a battle weary Andy Warburton, but her love is forbidden as he is a commoner. However her love is academic as he prefers the beautiful servant Nadjira, played by Caroline Warburton.

Anyway after much coming and going with some great quirky, but fairly operatic music, King Arik catches his daughter with Sanjar, and puts him on trial. Princess Barbara bribes the Balladeer/Tiger Keeper to tell her which door hides the tiger, although he tells her she really doesn’t want to know. The King hides Nadjira behind the other door leaving Barbara with the quandary of sending the man she loves to his death or into the arms of another. We are never told the answer, and instead are left wondering whether the play has finished.

For the third part of the Voiceworks programme Colin Lewis took up the baton and we were presented with the third part of The Apple Tree, called Passionella. The style changes from opera house to Broadway. Alpin Stewart is the Narrator for this tale of Ella the chimney sweep who dreams of becoming a movie star, made redundant by automation, who finds her wish granted by her enchanted television set, but only between the Seven O’Clock News and the end of the late, late show when she becomes Passionella.

Kerry Adam plays this dual role, with a convincing tribute to Marilyn Monroe. She is signed up by a movie studio, meets her idol in the rock star, Flip, sung by Gordon Fleming, and is worshipped by her adoring public. Then it is the end of the late, late show, and like Cinderella in pantomime, our heroine returns to her apartment and her television set, where she finds her fellow chimney sweep, looking remarkably like Flip, and they both live happily ever after.

The Apple Tree has had one revival since its original run, but it did not last long. To be honest, that is not much of a surprise. The songs are pleasant but not memorable and the plots are decidedly shallow. It has had a few amateur performances in the UK as it lends itself to school productions, but I have not seen it before and I don’t expect to see it again.

The Voiceworks presentation fell somewhere between a staged recital and a full production, but that is inevitable when trying to work miracles on a limited budget. Colin Lewis has a great deal of talent at his disposal that deserves stronger material to work with. It was a brave effort to present something so unknown but it made for an enjoyable evening and I’m looking forward to their next project.

© James Munro, 2009