ELizabeth Newman’s six-year tenure as Pitlochry’s artistic director was marked by a generosity of spirit and an urge to connect. As Mother Abeth says of Maria in The Sound of Music, Newman has “a great capacity to love.”
Which makes it all the more appropriate that her farewell shot before moving to Sheffield Theater is a musical championing civic responsibility. In politically dark times, this is a show that is nourishing and redemptive.
And if it's a good one, look no further than Kirsty Findlay. Maria, an aspiring nun, is as direct, practical, and pure as a blue-gray pinafore. She achieves this without being fluffy or starchy. Sure, she radiates sweetness, but she also brings fun and creativity.
Of course, it helps that Findlay can sing. In front of a large ensemble of actor-musicians led by music director Richard Leday, she approaches the Rodgers and Hammerstein classics with warmth and clarity. If you were Captain von Trapp (Ali Watt), you would melt in front of her too.
He has no chance of winning against his romantic rival Elsa Schrader (Hannah Baker). She doesn't seem particularly disappointed. Despite its charm, the film slips by some key emotional moments.
With his chiseled military features, Watt remains stiff and formal, but Findlay illuminates his character's moral conscience and reveals the heart behind his repression. He plays the melancholy Edelweiss accompaniment on his acoustic guitar.
Elsewhere, songs like “My Favorite Things” and “Do-Re-Mi” mask a musical with political overtones. It shows how compromise pave the way to fascism and how fear brings darkness. Here, the set by Ruali Murchison is framed by an eerie black pixelated sky, and rotating staircase pillars not only allow for fascinating placement of the child actors (all of whom are top-notch), but also , which also serves as a neoclassical podium for jackbooted Nazis.
Maria's obsession with seeing the good in everyone and accepting them for who they are stands in stark contrast to the conformist ideology from which she and her family ultimately escape. Like Newman's swan song, this piece's good heart brings the audience to their feet.
