David Gooderson’s play began life as So Great a Crime at Finborough Theatre where it was developed in 2013. It tells the little known story of Hector MacDonald, a man born and brought up in Mulbuie on the Black Isle in a Gaelic speaking Presbyterian crofting household. He rose meteorically from his humble beginnings through army ranks, eventually becoming a Major General. He had earned the nickname of Fighting Mac, was knighted and said to be the favourite general of Queen Victoria. From these dizzy heights, MacDonald’s eventual fall was great. After not having had leave for 10 years he was forced to return home from Ceylon where he had been serving as Commander, not out of compassion for a soldier loyal to ‘ army, nation, empire’, but as a result of a set of malicious rumours.
The full realisation of Hector relied on Gooderson’s searching in newspapers of the time as the Public Record Office in Kew revealed barely anything of MacDonald’s period in Ceylon leaving the inference that they were wilfully destroyed. The play is in Gooderson’s words, “…a reconstruction …founded entirely on the known facts.”
This sorry tale is neatly narrated by the six strong cast as they take on various roles across the scenes. Steven Duffy is an impressive and affecting figure as Hector whose accent as a Gael speaking English sounds authentic at least to a Lowland ear. His dignity is palpable as he stands, a stolid, solitary presence watching his character’s life unfolds like a real Boys’ Own adventure. Comic book heroes or any other kind aren’t meant to be mocked and bullied but MacDonald was in spite of his rank. A man with neither private income, acceptable accent nor the right dance moves did not conform to colonial mores and was subject to being referred to as “The Crofter” by his so- called peers. The class system is exposed in the characters throughout as bit by bit this outsider who respects ‘morals not money’ has the ranks of the ruling class, people whose consciences are ‘put to bed’ to save their skins when their own survival is at stake, well and truly closed before him under guise of decency.
Amid the tragedy that plays out, Hector is accompanied by some braw, and finely played, music from Pippa Murphy as well as a comic concert party piece of Three Little Maids from School from The Mikado . Diana Loosmore has choreographed a truly wonderful dance sequence in act 2 involving some very masculine yet elegantly performed pas de basque steps from the same ‘Three Little Maids’ (Stevie Hannan Valentine Hanson and Kevin Lennon), who each shine in their other roles. The sand coloured set with little more than a group of castored boxes with the heat of Ceylon and South Africa shown through Simon Wilkinson’s lighting.
The resulting tragedy of his suicide in Paris during his return to Ceylon to face a court martial meant, among other possible trumped up reasons, that he was denied a military funeral. The service of thanksgiving and remembrance for his life still celebrated annually in his birth place Mulbuie and his statue in Dingwall serve an indictment of his treatment. Hector does the same.
Tuesday 11 & Wednesday 12 November 7.30pm tour continues till 09 December