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The Great McGonagall
Entertains
Playwright - Chris Ballance
Actor - John Shedden
Company - Splinter Productions
Venues & Dates - Step Theatre Dundee then 3 - 5 Oct at The
Netherbow Theatre Edinburgh
Seen to review at The Netherbow on the 3 October
Run Time - Just over an hour, no interval
Reviewer - Thelma Good
A Dramatic Gem.
Beautiful tragedian and poet of the silvery Tay,
Dead now for a hundred years and a few days,
Mocked in his lifetime, to the present day read an'
Here, by Misters Ballance and Shedden,
Celebrated in this magnificent to see play. I raise my wine
For he (and they) will be remembered for a very long time.
William Topaz McGonagall is surely the second most wellknown Scottish
poet after Robert Burns. Like him he came from a humble background with
even less formal education. A Dundee weaver who believed he was called
by God to be a writer, John Shedden's McGonagall arrives on stage,
eager with enthusiasm, flourishing his poems. In just over an hour we
roll out aching with our own convulsions at him.
We're treated to Shakespeare and McGonagall's Poetic Gems. There's his
poems commemorating Scottish Wars, Bruce and Wallace, triumphs and disasters
the opening of the Tay Bridge, its collapse and replacement. From Shakespeare
there's a bit of Hamlet, and McGonagall also re-enacts for our delectation
his Macbeth's wonderful stage fight with Macduff. He tells us of the poems
to his Monarch and his visit to Balmoral on foot only to be turned back
at the gate. Clearly a man who believed the best of people, McGonagall
had a strong faith to sustain him when home life got afflicted by the
drink or, when invited to performed, he found himself not lauded but laughed
at.
Chris Ballance has crafted for Shedden a strong structure so that
we become one of those audiences. And McGonagall delights in coming close
to his audience, you may find him sitting beside you, or attempting to
sell you a pamphlet of his poems. Shedden's charm and charisma
fuse with his character's to make this new one man play very alive. Alive
with theatre and love for a man who burned with passion to share his love
of Shakespeare and his own poems. And just occasionally as we open our
mouths to hoot again at his risible belief in his ability, we shift slightly.
And that insight into our darker side along with Shedden's performance
are strong reasons to see this and to wish it a long life as a Dramatic
Gem.
© Thelma Good 3 October 2002. - Published on EdinburghGuide.com
John Shedden will perform An Actor's Craft (various characters may drop
in!) on 15 Nov 2002 at a fund raising lunch in Colinton, Edinburgh for
the Robert Fergusson Statue Appeal. Contact Bob Watt on 0131 441 2580
for details
Chris Ballance as well as being a playwright runs a secondhand bookshop
Byre Books specialising in books
on Theatre and Film also Folklore and Mythology.
McGonagall's
poems are published in an number of volumes including Poetic Gems and
More Poetic Gems also Collected Poems as well appearing in a collection
of the world's worst poetry.
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