“Stop Playing Jacob’s Ladder With My Spine” Poster

Caring and ambitious: On Some Far Shore

On Some Far Shore does not pretend to be anything else than an earnest and caring new musical. With little set, little props and only three cast members, it is a production that gives all it can.

Euan is a young man who is faced with the daunting task of writing his mother, Helen’s, eulogy. He finds himself paralysed, self doubting and unable to complete it. His close friend Isla comes to help him and together they go through their memories of Euan’s mother as something blossoms between them.

New musicals are always tricky, especially ones at small scales that have no spectacle to hide behind if the music is poor. Delightfully, the music of On Some Far Shore is one of its strongest aspects. Each song is different and yet true to the melancholic soul of the production, the best being Helen's about a bedtime story she used to tell Euan when he was a child involving a boat, one that serves as a metaphor for her hopes and dreams for her son. During this song, One Some Far Shore, truly has the wind in its sales and praise goes to Louis Benneyworth, Madi Bouchta and Nicole Palka, the latter of whom plays Helen and is the strongest performer in the production. Sound wise, the production has very good mixing and sound levels, and the actors themselves fill the room without the use of microphones, a very hard challenge but one the production pulls off very well.

A gauze effect is used throughout the production to mixed effectiveness, a dimming of the lighting and rebalancing would help this and make it stronger but as it stands it is serviceable and its ideas come across. In the second half of the production, the script seems to slump, something this intimate focusing on grief and reflection can afford to move slowly but it feels as though the script finds itself muddled, both unsure and repetitive on how it wants the characters to deal with Helen’s passing. Furthermore, although the songs are strong both musically and lyrically, the lines in between them are less so. They can at times feel like vehicles to move the plot towards its next big number for one of the actors to sing.