Theatre
Chess
Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
Four stars
With the Cold War serving as the backdrop, tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union building, and back-room dodgy dealings and secret handshakes, perhaps there has not been a more opportune year to stage Chess, the musical by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus of ABBA, and with lyrics by Tim Rice. The Conservatoire's music theatre cohort, under the superb direction of Professor Andrew Panton, can be proud of such a technically adept production, which really explored the complexities of the strategy game on more than one level. Binaries do not exist in this black and white world, but - in the end - there's no room for grey either.
Strong ticket sales precede the superb performances, so you may not be in luck if you try and secure a ticket; considering the central performance of Daisy Ann Fletcher as Florence Vassy it would be a crime if there is a free seat before the run ends on Saturday 1 April. The recipient of the Andrew Lloyd Webber scholarship, Fletcher's vocals were expressive and tuneful in Heaven Help My Heart but it was her choked-up I Know Him So Well (a duet with Hayley VerValin as Svetlana Sergievsky) which was truly electrifying.
Some diction issues aside, the masculine world of Championship Chess was admirably portrayed by Barney Wilkinson as Freddie Trumper and Jamie Pritchard as Anatoly Sergievsky. Wilkinson's physical energy (attributed to his 1980s cocaine habit) was offset by Pritchard's ultimately flawed and tragic statesmanlike demeanour. Evil machinations were expertly executed by Alexander Molokov (a smooth yet sinister Shane Convery) and balanced by a tour-de-force Arbiter (Emma Torrens, recipient of the Ian Fleming Scholarship award).
Darragh O'Leary's inspired choreography, David Higham's precise musical direction and Grant Anderson's pack-a-punch lighting design, all highlighted the collaborative nature of this across-discipline production. Another high quality Conservatoire show.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article