Moulin Rouge Spiegeltent, Elgin High School, New Elgin, 12 June 2009

Carnival of Unfortunate Stories (photo by Fin Macrae)

WHILE participation is probably the most important element in any NTS Transform project, the ultimate aim is to produce a genuine piece of theatre as its crowning moment. The Carnival of Unfortunate Stories largely succeeded in fulfilling that aim, and concluded the Transform Moray project in fine style.

The cast was drawn entirely from third-year pupils at Elgin High School, and they acquitted themselves well in a story-line that combined a creepily atmospheric carnival setting with some dark themes generated and developed by the participants under the guidance of the Creative Team under director Graham McLaren.

The linked stories of the misadventures of the unfortunate Regina Dowdy and all those associated with her drew resonance from classic fantasy and myth as well as a plethora of specific local references.

The Spiegeltent itself boasted a temporary new frontage created for the shows by the kids working in the design team, and was flanked by sideshows and jugglers, establishing the carnival atmosphere even before we entered the dimly lit venue, where an acrobat sat motionless on a trapeze in the centre of the arena.

The band, under the direction of Alan Penman, was already in place as the audience took their seats around the central ring, and the show got underway. The freakish elements began with the MC, two seemingly conjoined men who guided us through the shifting episodes in this strange tall tale of family misfortune.

The acrobat turned out to be the girl who played Regina herself (the programme contained only an alphabetical listing of the performers). Once launched, the quick moving action romped through a sequence of scenes in which Regina danced with a certain cloven-hoofed character at the Red Shoes Ballroom, and subsequently had a two-headed baby – the Murdybeast – which takes up residence on the other side of a mirror.

Shamed and disgraced, the Dowdy family are cast out of Elgin to darkest Edinburgh. Their successors in the now haunted house, the Willowdale family, meet various nasty ends, all done in mime with commentary from the MCs, one of a number of different theatrical techniques employed in the course of the show.

A quick fast forward a couple of decades, and Regina’s legitimate son, Gilbert Dowdy-Gore, became the focal point of the second half. His wedding – complete with the obligatory embarrassing speech from the best man – led to the disappearance of his mum, followed in short order by the equally mysterious disappearance of his new wife. All of these threads were eventually pulled together in the denouement in the carnival.

All of this action, which included several songs, emergetic large-scale musical sequences and a fair bit of humour, was accompanied by very effective music from the band, all composed within the project. The performers tackled their material with real verve and commitment, and the lighting (also operated by participants from the school), costumes and the smeared clown-like make-up worn by all served to heighten the mysterious carnival atmosphere of the setting.

© Kenny Mathieson, 2009