Review from Surrey Herald and the Hounslow Chronicle
Thursday, 15 September 2011 00:34
Review from Surrey Herald and the Hounslow Chronicle
IT WAS patently obvious right from the start that this was not going to be a quiet evening of gentle, lilting ballads and lazily-droning uillean pipes.
Even before the first dancers had bounced on stage in a blur of sparkly-costumes and rat-a-tat-tatting feet, the audience was confronted by the sight of two enormous drum kits set up ready for action.
Sure enough, Essence of Ireland proved to be a high-volume, quickfire compendium of song and dance, a colourful, exciting melding of Pogues-style raucousness and Riverdance-inspired agility.
The packed audience lapped it up. Even in the early stages when the hard-working little band of musicians had only just launched into their joyful mixture or songs and tunes, there was no hesitation in joining in, though it must be said it was the poshest version of the Wild Rover chorus I have ever heard!
Many shows have been doing the rounds in the past few years since the worldwide phenomenon of Riverdance sprang to life.Essence of Ireland is somewhat different to most of those that have gone before inasmuch as it features as much song as it does dance.
It also has more of a thread running through it, courtesy of story based on fictional letters sent home to his first love from America by an Irish emigre, who rises to become a police chief in New York and raises his family before, in old age, being overwhelmed with a desire to return home to Ireland.
The aforementioned group of musicians, headed by old stager Ged Graham who, from a distance, bears a remarkable resemblance to actor Timothy Spall, provide a boisterously-entertaining, sing-a-long presence, trotting out some of the all-time Irish favourites that might have been sung and played a million times before but always bring a smile and a warm glow.
They even manage to sneak in a few non-Irish pieces such as the Penguin Cafe Orchestra’s glorious tune Music For a Found Harmonium.
Fiddler Leanne Thorose is a sensation. Like Ged she is hardly off stage during the entire evening, and the pair are ably supported by guitarist Nathan O’Borne, drummer Barrie Cooper, tin whistler Caroline Regan and arranger Liam Holmes on keyboards.
There are welcome breaks from the 100mph hour stuff, courtesy of songstress Louise Gale, who seemed almost overcome with emotion as she put her heart into a beautiful version of Danny Boy.
In total contrast, she leads the company in a performing a seamless and dynamic collection of songs from modern Irish popsters ranging from Ronan Keating to the Undertones.
Then, of course, there is the dancing, with five male and five female performers led with great spirit by Ross Logan and Lianne Stubbs.
Most of it is predictable stuff, of course, though why change a winning formula when it obviously works so very well and creates so much pleasure for so many people?
There’s plenty of the rapid percussive step dancing we’ve come to associate with such productions, along with quieter, ‘soft shoe’ numbers and a number of innovative ideas, many of them complementing the songs from the band, which mean there’s never a dull moment and, even though the show is on the long side, the time sees to fly by.
It’s also got some of the best lighting effects I’ve seen in such a production.
Yes, the whole thing is cheesy, yes, it wrings out every last drop of Irish sentimentality, but this is a thoroughly enjoyable, immensely-entertaining treat of a show from an energetic and ever-smiling cast who very obviously enjoy themselves as much as those of us watching.