Hiya Dolly! – Venue 53: theSpace @ Surgeons Hall – Grand Theatre – 8pm
ONE of my abiding memories of work experience with The Scotsman newspaper was visiting the Roslin Institute, the research centre that created Dolly the Sheep, the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell. There’s something magic about the place, which I’ve always felt whenever I’ve returned.
Some of Roslin’s magic is captured in writer Vince LiCata’s new play, Hiya Dolly!, which sets out to not only tell the story of the people who created the world’s most famous sheep, but also impart a wee bit of science along the way. And it comes so close to hitting both targets.
There are a lot of laughs to be had along the way – adapting tunes such as The Proclaimers’ I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) into “500 cells” and Wild Mountain Thyme into “Will you go, Dolly, go?” had the crowd tapping their toes. Guitarist Ciaran McGhee and fiddler Adam Smith set the tone for a fun evening.
Mark Beauchamp as Ian Wilmut and John Fagan – and his accompanying mullet – as Keith Campbell carried the show, delivering solid performances that still left room for laughter. But it’s Jessica Donnelly who steals every scene as Dolly the attention-seeking sheep, acting as the play’s narrator in a curly whig, white woollen jumper, and a tartan skirt; she’s created a character that sits somewhere between Wee Jimmy Krankie and Tracey Ullman’s Mhairi Black in Tracey Breaks the News.
Some of the impressions of Scottish accents delivered by other members of the cast were sadly lacking – to the point where I left trying to work out if the characters were meant to be Scottish or not. The younger members of the cast also struggled to be heard above the noise of an air conditioning unit that was cooling the room at the Surgeons’ Hall, and so either need to project their voices more forcefully or be given microphones like Dolly.
The final act of the play didn’t work for me either; up until Dolly’s death, the narrative flowed really smoothly, but the conclusion jarred with the rest of the play, and failed to reveal the fate of some of the story’s characters. Similarly, some of the scientific explanations worked well – including how the nucleus or centre of one cell is transferred into another – but others fell rushed.
Despite its structural shortcomings, the toe-tapping tunes and the performances from Beauchamp, Fagan, and the hilarious Donnelly make the show a fun night out, and worth a look. Even if it’s just to groan at Donnelly’s rendition of “Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene; I’m begging of you, please don’t take my lamb…”.
THREE STARS
Get the full details about the show here.
Plus, read more reviews on Scottish Field’s Fringe pages.
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