Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour - Review - Live theatre

Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour
Live Theatre

Speechless and that doesn't happen often ! 
Writing this has been a struggle even to get to this point !! Not that I thought it would be this easy! Where to start ? How about here, how many notes can you sing, hum or do anything with in tune? Me none ! One because I'm tone deaf and can't sing and there's no more reasons, but stick 6 Amazing singers on the stage written by one of the best North East musical writers in the world Lee Hall (Sorry Sting) and you have Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour. 
Melissa Allan who makes her professional theatre debut plays Orla, who is small lovely little character that has just beaten cancer!
Caroline Deyga plays Chell who is like the mother of the group, she's feisty and you really and I mean really wouldn't want to mess with her! 
Then there's the posh one Kay played by Karen Fishwick who is apparently off to uni in September ! (Good for her ! ) 
Kirsty Maclaren plays Manda the one who is a bit lost as they say in the play "Mum Fucked Off "and "Lives with Dad" 
Kylah who is in a band played by Frances Mayli McCann is in a rock band going nowhere fast ! 
Lastly there is Fionnula she is the cool girl in the group played by the flawless Dawn Sievewright, who is a confused young girl trying to find out about love ! 
We join the 6 girls as they travel from Oban to Glasgow for a singing contest which the girls aren't so keen on "Everybody else gets to sing about love and death - we get to sing about livestock" but they are more interested in getting home for the last dance with some hunky sailors than winning ! 
The bond that the characters have is truly fantastic, they look out for each other and want the best for each other, like a sisterhood helping each other cope with the trials of what life throws at them which includes love,

hate and just plain stupidity!! No matter what life throws at them and whatever backgrounds they come from they are 6 girls you don't want to mess with !(Come on they're Scottish- Think Braveheart)
In the show there is a lot of funny jokes but you realise how much of a bad person you are when you laugh out loud about puppies bleeding to death...... The shows music must be talked about because quite frankly it was one of the best composed shows I have ever been to !! The band were on stage and for once there wasn't a guy in the band ( or on stage for that matter). Amy Shackcloth (Band Leader/Keyboards), Emily Linden (Guitar) and Becky Brass (Percussion) You could tell that they have a great relationship with the cast and they worked really in sync with each other ! With performances of songs from Handel to an absolutely bloody brilliant acoustic version of No Woman No Cry (Even though singing it, I thought one of the girls was nearly in tears). 
The show has many great parts to it but I have to say the two people for me that stood out were Melissa Allen and Dawn Sievewright they took me on a great ride with their characters on journeys of self discovery, with powerful monologues about their characters stories (with a few lesbian kisses in one of the characters story lines) 
The show was an all singing and dancing affair and this was a real team effort from the Director Vicky Featherstone and throughout the creative team have done a fantastic job with this piece ! if you don't go and see this you will have missed the chance to see one of the BEST shows to come out this year!!! 

Reuben Hiles