“Citius, Altius, Fortius.” No, not method actor Daniel Day Lewis in My Left Foot trying to spray “What’s my motivation?” But the Olympics motto which is Latin for “Faster, Higher, Stronger”. (Incidentally, the Paralympic motto is “Spirit in Motion” which sounds like a paralytic binge drinker about to projectile vomit.)
On a similar note, in the feel-good finale of My Left/Right Foot – The Musical by Birds of Paradise Theatre Company and National Theatre of Scotland, playwright and director Robert Softley Gale encourages us to be “Stronger, Braver, Smarter, Greater” in our attitude towards equality and inclusion.
Particularly in relation to disability. Or as composer Claire McKenzie and lyricist Scott Gilmour put it in one of a dozen dazzling showstoppers (two of which were penned by Jerry Springer: The Opera’s Richard Thomas): “spasticity”. A term which the combo-clad techie Chris (Matthew Duckett) is all too familiar with having been born with “a funny foot” aka cerebral palsy.
Unfortunately, most of the Kirktoon Amateur Players for whom he paints sets in the same dreary style as the musty church hall in which they rehearse (ie “pish”) are cerebrally challenged in the equality department. None more so than the controlling director Sheena (Gail Watson) who once blacked-up a child for a production of Bugsy Malone.
And leading man Grant (John McLarnon), a West End reject with a Michael Ball spare tyre who is headstrong in “spazzing-up” to play the lead role of Christy Brown in their forthcoming production of My Left Foot for an annual One-Act Play Festival.
A script recommended by movement director Gillian (vocal powerhouse Dawn Sievewright who to paraphrase Danny Boy “her pipes, her pipes are calling”). Not for noble intentions, but because companies are awarded extra points for “inclusion”. The title of the opening number.
But with no victories in their 76-year history, budding director Amy (Louise McCarthy) dares to shake things up a little by casting the reluctant and real-life funny-footed Chris in the role made famous by DDL who like the film and other “disability porn” performances such as Eddie Redmayne in The Theory of Everything come in for a right royal kicking.
Needless to say, things go awry. Pigeon-chests swell (quite literally in the case of Sheena who counters her solitude by doing a Brenda Fricker!), love triangles branch out into hetero-tetrahedrons (Chris is down with the gays, but he’s not going down on his hands and knees) and the demon drink renders the show “f****d” (Richard Conlon as the confidence-starved Ian makes a show-stopping entrance in the morning after the night before).
There is so much to like about this riotous musical, which pokes fun at the right-bodied and wrong-footed’s attitudes to disability. A streak of devilment which extends to the captions and sign language: the former resembling a drunken game of Scrabble when the singers branch off into overlapping verses; the latter interpreted by Natalie MacDonald (present and integrated throughout) whose desperate attempts to get the spotlight operator to shift the focus centre stage so that she can join a “spazzle-dazzle” finale being one of the many understated joys in a delightfully over-the-top production.
Quite whether writer/director Gale and dramaturg Douglas Maxwell will tinker with the structure to vary the dynamics and create more light and shade is perhaps one for the future – but what a future, given the rousing reception and raft of 4 and 5 star reviews.
Regardless, My Left/Right Foot – The Musical is a hoot. As was the audience member with Tourette’s who was introduced in the pre-show announcement. So funny and well-timed were their comical outbursts (“f**k off”, “Thunderbirds”, “kiss”) that one wondered if they carried an Equity Card.
Whether able-bodied or not, we have what Chris is told “a choice”: “to love life or endure it”. There’s nothing to endure about this production, however. Not even the ninety minutes running time which whizzed by faster than Oscar Pistorius trying to outrun the law. But there’s everything to love about it. And to think, Creative Scotland initially withdrew Bird of Paradise’s RFO funding! I repeat: “f**k off”.
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