Showing @ Whitespace Gallery, Edinburgh, Thu 13 – Sat 15 Jun
Biographical dramas are an odd genre. After all, where do you begin; at the start of the subject’s life or the peak of their fame? And what do you concentrate on; that which made them famous or life behind the scenes? Then there’s the audience to consider; is truth bent to feed the fire of legend or is it told with gory detail, risking the opprobrium of fans? Kingdom Theatre Company’s solution: just do the songs.
John Murray’s play begins at the end, with the aged crooner lying in his hospital bed convalescing after a heart attack. After a brief visit from his wife, Barbara (Keara Murphy), Frank (Moray Innes) is tended to by a replacement nurse (on this occasion, Jennie Walker). Unfortunately, this nurse happens to be a member of a particularly odious community: the new generation. Prepare for a trip down memory lane with Ol’ Blue Eyes as guide and a young Blue Eyes (Alan Murrie) in charge of music.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about this production, is that there’s very little drama. The story is basically a loose narrative grafted onto a short set-list from the singer’s greatest hits collection. There is no discussion of background, early life or politics and only a cursory reference to his alleged Mafia connections. None of the actors are bad performers and most seem to handle the accents admirably (at least to the untrained ear). However, lines are often spoken over one another, apparently as a result of of muddled cues and some of the action borders on ridiculous; if the emergency response in American hospitals is anything like this, people really shouldn’t be worried about Obamacare. Yet the play was always going to be about the voices; Innes in particular does a great impersonation of that famous honeyed warble, the entertainment value of which alone saves the play from being a mess. Kingdom Theatre Company did it their way – luckily for them, Frank had already done it his.