Fisherman’s Friends
Bristol Hippodrome ★★★★✩
THERE are several musicals doing the rounds at present that are little more than an excuse to play the music of the person featured in the title. They tell you very little about the person, and what they do is often so sanitised you would be hard pushed to believe in all you see and hear.
This musical, based on the true story of a group of Cornish fishermen and farmers who discovered singing on the quay at Port Isaac to raise money for the local lifeboat, has a real story to tell.
Dramatist Amanda Whittington’s retelling of the group’s rise from singing for pure fun and the joy of their friends and neighbours, to scoring a top-10 chart entry and performance on the Pyramid Stage at the Glastonbury Festival, may not be absolutely true, but it never looks at this unique singing group through rose-coloured spectacles. These are real people as are the everyday challenges they, as do all those who earn their living through the sea, face in their lives. By the time tragedy strikes, the audience had taken them all to their hearts, feeling their loss as greatly as the characters.
Robert Duncan plays lovable old fisherman Jago with a lovely mix of humour and deep sincerity, while the portrayal of his crotchety wife Maggie is an honest portrait of a stoic Cornishwoman in the hands of Susan Penhaligon.
Equally realistic is James Gaddas’ Jim, the leader and doubting Thomas of the group, unable after 15 years to accept the desertion of his wife for the bright lights of London. His troubled relationship with his feisty daughter Alwyn, Parisa Shahmir, produces some fine quiet vocal moments as opposed to the Friends’ boisterous sea shanties, helping to keep the dramatic content on a high level throughout. Jason Langley as would-be entrepreneur Danny represented the harsh reality of the outside world and the tough popular music industry – providing an ideal contrast to the picture-postcard view visitors have of Cornwall.
But above all else this show is about the music that brought the Fisherman’s Friends together. Inspirational music – sea shanties and folk songs – which grew out of the earth of Cornwall and the powerful unforgiving sea around it, from which generations of Cornishmen have ripped a living. Singing lustily, giving the firm impression that they were doing so for the pure love of it, this company, and the nine musicians who share the stage with them playing everything from mandolin, ukulele, banjo and concertina, to vio
lin and guitar, swept the audience along on an unstoppable wave of joyous song.
Not even the firm hand of director James Grieve, which has kept the action bouncing along at a fast pace, can prevent the show slowing at the end as Amanda Whittington tries to manufacture a suitable ending to this ongoing story. But not even that prevents, to make use of a much-overused phrase, this show having a wonderful feel-good factor. If your spirits are low, this is the show for you.