You have to marvel at the sheer stamina of this company, which is doing over a year of mainly one-night stands all over the UK. Their energy is infectious. They manage to create intimacy even on a Sunday evening in the Derby Assembly Rooms, a venue that needs a full house to have any atmosphere of its own.
The show’s success is down as much to the format as to the joy of the flawlessly executed, high octane dance. The song and dance numbers are set within the framework of narrated letters exchanged between an Irish emigre to the US and his girl back home. Distance lends enchantment and so there’s no hint of the Troubles in the history, but the format allows for everything from St Patrick’s Night celebrations to salsa dance with an Irish twist.
The dance is breathtaking in its beauty and speed, a rhythmic conversation between feet and feet, feet and drums, feet, sticks and trash can lids. The ten dancers, led by Tommy Tonge and Jennifer Gainey, move seamlessly from soft shoe to tap, and the haunting quality of Leanne Thorose’s fiddle and Caroline Regan’s tin whistle are also part of the winning formula.
And you get to clap along to all the old favourites, from Sweet Molly Malone to Whiskey in the Jar. Ged Graham is principal male vocalist as well as creative director, and while it’s all unashamedly sentimental sometimes, he doesn’t do saccharine. It’s beautifully lit too, an altogether exhilarating evening.
Production information can change over the run of the show.
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