No need to blame the pollen for the tears of joy
An Afternoon at The West End Pitlochry Festival Theatre ✪✪✪✪
I’m not crying at your singing, honestly,” said Daniel Boys midway through the show, just after Lauren Samuels had delivered a tempestuous solo performance of Don’t Rain on My Parade. “It’s hay fever, my eyes are streaming.” His singing partner at this small but all-encompassing package performance series of West End hits fired back, “why not?”. In this silly, friendly exchange between two experienced performers all that we’ve missed in the last, almost concert-free year was summed up - the personal connection, the sense that other people who we don’t know are sharing recognisable human moments.
For this first proper show at Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s new outdoor stage, a runny nose was a small price to pay to see live performance back. Led by their indefatigable artistic director Elizabeth Newman, PFT has striven to be a community hub as much as an arts centre in the last year. A simple, circular wooden bandstand faced approximately fifty paying customers on the verge, sitting on socially distanced camp chairs and picnic blankets.
Yet outdoor diners at the riverbank pub and dogwalkers passing by also waved their hands to the sound of You'll Never Walk Alone, dedicated to Captain Tom Moore and the NHS. here were plenty of dancers to Boys' smooth Can't Take My Eyes Off of You and the charismatic couple's closing medleys from Grease and Mamma Mia! If there were tears after all this time there was no need to blame the pollen.