A Gallant Life

Edinburgh Fringe

3.5 Stars

This is a sweet, enjoyable bio-musical about Muriel Thompson: suffragette, car racer and WWI heroine.  The cast of four is enthusiastic and work well together, and are clearly passionate about the topic.  And it is fascinating, to see a forgotten but of WWI history presented by a talented group of young performers.

 

At times, the songs fit the action quite well, and added to the overall plot.  However, at other times they seemed to not quite fit in, with somewhat modern accompaniment.  There was no ‘moment of truth’, and although many vignettes in Muriel’s life were presented, there was little growth or change in the character.

 

However, despite these few things (which could easily be fixed in a later version of the show), it is an enjoyable and informative piece of theatre, and well worth seeing.