GET in to the groove for the summery bank holiday weekend, Saturday June 2, with The 60s Mod Musical SHOUT!
SHOUT! takes us on a vivid tour to 1960s’ London with a diverse group of women, various ages, finding their way through that groundbreaking decade. They are linked by correspondence with an on-scene magazine, writing letters to agony aunt Gwendoline in the music driven ‘Shout!’ as they muddle through careers, men, life and more.
On stage, it’s an energetic mix with a lot of laughs. No, it’s not a Sex and The City riff as interestingly, the five shunt on separate tracks – literally. The heady score is sung.
Actress Fiona Carty takes us on what Talking Broadway dubbed “a surprisingly shagadelic shindig”. The songbook thrills, with ‘Son of a Preacher Man’, ‘To Sir with Love’, ‘Goldfinger’ and other belters.
SHOUT! tells a story of London when Lulu ruled. “The women are named after colours in the rainbow and each represent an archetype. My name is Orange and I’m the housewife kind,” explains the Dubliner. “Blue is young, quite attractive, wealthy and outgoing. Green is the one with the sex drive. Red is naive and unsure of herself, has never had a relationship with a man.
“Yellow is American, a white woman from Cincinatti who has come over to London to chase Paul McCartney.”
“Ours is an all female cast and the women write away to the magazine of the time ‘SHOUT!’ to confide in the agony aunt Gwendolyn Holmes. And her advice is limited and traditional. As in, if you are having trouble with your boyfriend, it’s ‘fix him dinner’ or ‘get a pedicure’.
“Over time the girls come to realise that there is more to life than this and during 1962, ’63, ’64, ’65 we see them change.
“This is a really, really funny show, by the way. We love doing it.”
An experienced actress who works mostly in Northern Ireland and in the West End, Fiona auditioned having seen the show in Dublin, such was the quality of “all around singing, dancing, acting.
“‘SHOUT!’ is very musical but there are monologues to the audience and dialogues with Aunty Gwendolyn through the letter writing and her responses – her part is a recording. The girls never meet or interact.”
Upbeat, feelgood and with a sensational soundtrack, why not dress the mod-ish part and go dancing in the seats?
This Sixties musical comedy plays one night only Saturday June 2, 8pm at www.limetreetheatre.ie
