The Voice Thief
The Voice Thief
Summerhall, Edinburgh
Mary Brennan
Oh good, you think, during our tour of the Mackenzie Institute for the Encouragement of Vocal Harmony - the little ones at the front will get pounced on first, if there are to be any vocalising trials.
What's actually pounced on (and this applies to all ages) is our imagination. From the moment we get decontaminated - to remove the outside filth from mouths and ears - to the battle of wills between the (deceptively) charming Dr Mackenzie and his increasingly bolshie daughter Beatrice (Jenny Hulse), this new Catherine Wheels production hooks us and spooks us as we promenade through Summerhall's basement spaces.
Designer Karen Tennent's own imagination has gone into mega-warped overdrive, filling customised rooms with cod-scientific apparatus and quirky clutter. You'd squeal with delight only Dr Mackenzie (Ian Cameron) doesn't like loud, ugly voices and he has ways of making them go away. Scary ways.
Watch the doctor at work, operating to remove the whiny notes from a strident girlie's vocal chords, and Doctor Nice becomes Doctor Nasty, out to deny females - not lads - of their right to speak out, protest or complain.
Gill Robertson's epic intentions are realised in all their grotesque humours and tingly-shivery menace by a creative team who even allow Dr Mackenzie to make a song-and-dance about his successes.
There's lots of fun laced through a narrative that promenades on the dark side when Beatrice starts hearing her dead mother's voice, and lots of inventive visual trickery that, unlike screen special effects, thrills in real time.
In all, a fabulous fantasy you want to shout about, at decibels that would pain Dr Mackenzie.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article