Review: THE STAMPING GROUND, Festival Theatre Edinburgh
Photo credit: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan
The Stamping Ground is a new musical, commissioned by Eden Court Highlands and Raw Material, featuring the music of iconic Scottish Celtic rock band, Runrig. It’s a love letter to Scotland – the people, the landscape, and the sheer magic running through every rock, river and glen.
Morna Young’s story follows Annie (Jenny Hulse) and Euan (Ali Watt), a couple moving back to their tiny home of Glenbeg with their teenage daughter Fiona (Caitlin Forbes), after she is horribly bullied. They soon come to the realisation that Glenbeg won’t fix all of their problems and that maybe their journey together is coming to an end. Alongside this, the locals are fighting to save their beloved pub from being turned into holiday homes, and Fiona finds a new best friend in Summer (Naomi Stirrat), whose mysterious past tragically links her to Euan.
Although this is a jukebox musical, the songs fit into the piece so well, it feels like they were written for it. Calum and Rory MacDonald’s music is beautiful – it’s folky, gritty and powerful, and the cast perform it with gusto. The singing isn’t always perfectly polished, but it’s not supposed to be – this is music built on feeling, and the passion and emotion is much more important than a technically beautiful performance. When the whole company sings together, the overall effect is really quite moving, even in up-tempo numbers such as the title song. The ballads are emotional and captivating, especially ‘All Things Must Change’, which weaves its way through the entire piece.
The cast are wonderful. Many of them double up as instrumentalists, supporting the three-strong band of musical director John Kielty on keyboard, Jon MacKenzie on guitar and legendary percussionist Stuart Semple. Ali Watt is excellent as Euan, capturing his torment and struggles to cope with the immense difficulty he’s going through. Despite his stand-out performance, however, the story belongs to the women – Annie, Fiona, Summer, and Euan’s mother Mary, played by Annie Grace. It’s their relationships that form the backbone of the story, it’s their scenes that hold the most emotional weight, and it’s when they sing together that magic really happens.
Kenneth MacLeod’s set is hugely effective, with rocky crags and mountains weaving round the outskirts of a huge stone circle forming the backdrop. Coupled with Simon Wilkinson’s lighting design, which sends bolts of light around the set in the powerful first sequence set in Glenbeg, the result is imposing but beautiful – much like Scotland’s natural landscape.
Luke Kernaghan’s direction gives this new musical life. It perfectly encapsulates what Scotland is, and what it means to those who have ever called it home. It reminds us of what we stand to lose if we lose sight of the beauty and the culture that flows through Scotland, and it opens our eyes to just how special this country is. When the iconic strains of ‘Loch Lomond’ begin after the curtain call, with the audience up on their feet singing and clapping along, it’s clear that as a result of this show, we’ve remembered what we have in this wild, magical land, and that we, like the townsfolk of Glenbeg, are so grateful to have been a part of it.
**** Four stars
Reviewed by: Lorna Murray
The Stamping Ground plays at the Festival Theatre, Edinburgh until 27 May before visiting Greenock, Aberdeen, Glasgow and Perth. For more information, please click here.