Once is the story of an Irish busker who is feeling down after a broken heart, but because of a chance meeting with a Czech woman he is able to revitalise his life through music. It’s a story that also features hope, personal growth and vacuum cleaners.
That is the rough outline of the plot of Once, and it was an enjoyable evening at the Barn Theatre in Cirencester. The lighting and staging of the show was impressive and my understanding is that this production of the show was designed around the space at the Barn.
I knew absolutely nothing about this show going in, and so it was a journey of discovery for me. The plot is simple on the surface of things, but the show’s strength is in its subtleties and the nuance’s of the characters and their relationships.
I was impressed with the cast who played a variety of instruments live on stage as part of the proceedings. It was great to see how the cast worked as an ensemble to create the songs and that it didn’t end up just feeling like we were watching a gig.
One thing that wasn’t so great was that I sometimes found the lyrics hard to understand over the music. We were sat in the second row, which was good in that it meant we were up close to the action, but maybe we were too close to the acoustic guitars to hear the voices through the speakers. It was weird. Maybe being sat further back it would have been better balanced.
The show was filled with people doing accents, and maybe there was a tiny lack of clarity which didn’t help us hear the lyrics, but for the most part they seemed very good at the accents. Maybe a few slips here or there where a Czech accent bounced back into Irish. The guy who played the lead’s dad perhaps had the biggest challenge of playing multiple Irish people and having to distinguish their accents. He did so one being a very grounded Dublin accent and the other being a high pitched and camp Cork accent. This was a comedic role though so if it was a tad of a parody it worked well.
The highlight song was Falling Slowly which won an Oscar when the film of Once originally released in the mid 2000s. The rest of the soundtrack was also good although I don’t think it’s one I’ll be adding immediately to my playlist.
Conclusion
The show is a nicely watchable and heart warming tale that has a good cast and is well worth seeing for the remaining time it’s on at the Barn Theatre, or if you get the chance to experience another production of it elsewhere in the future.
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