Milly Sweeney’s The Caravel is easily my favourite show I’ve seen at the Fringe thus far. I attended their opening performance on the 22nd August at Venue 45 @ TheSpace and, after the hour and ten minutes was up, I took off down the road at a sprint to write this review. With an all-female creative team, directed by Bronagh Docherty and Amy Brennan-Clark, the play is based on the story of the real Caravel bar in Springboig which was demolished in 1996 after years of being an epicentre of gang culture.
Run by a notorious crime couple, this on-stage Caravel also plays host to a group of local teenagers whom we watch grow up amidst the web of crime and violence in which they are tangled. Despite their unbelievable proximity to it, the kids are completely oblivious to what’s happening around them. In this way, Milly Sweeney has masterfully spun this Glasgow pub of myth and legend into the most beautiful coming-of-age allegory. The play absolutely captures the comic lack of awareness we young folk sometimes have in general. But perhaps more poignantly, there is a real and authentic Scottish spirit lingering here in what is, possibly the least Scottish, Scottish festival of all time.
Hilariously camp, and charmingly funny (in the least patronising way possible), the audience members are also customers in the bar, despite the fact that we don’t get to join in with the dance numbers. We too, grow up there with the help of the Boss, the Landlady, the Bouncer, the Barman, Steeko – an ensemble cast you will recognise and remember well from your own life. Jean, Jonie, Jane, Alison and Paula might ring a bell too. Lewis Stewart, who plays ‘The DJ’ is spectacular in his debut professional performance, as are the whole cast. Such a clearly tight-knit and harmonious group performing together never fails to make the audience feel like they’re part of the gang, and therefore in on the action. It’s like being at school again, but in a good way.
There was rarely a moment without laughter – save the moving and introspective nuggets of wisdom scattered throughout, which is what made for such a powerful and stirring piece. I really appreciated the exploration of girlhood, and Scottish girlhood at that: the dancing, the music, the friendship, the arguments. To me, it feels like something sorely lacking in media and literature. To see it explored onstage was my dream come true.
I only discovered after leaving the theatre that the crew had been experiencing a sizeable lighting difficulty during the performance, meaning their simple set was less enhanced during key moments than they’d hoped. When I say there is virtually no way I would have noticed had I not been told, I mean it. Of course lighting, set and technology are all very important components of theatre, but this show has been living proof for me that a play is the story itself and the actors who tell it. In my ideal world, The Caravel slips beyond the boundaries of small theatres to hypnotise and enthral the masses on silver screens and west-end stages.
Image provided to The Student as press material.