Nessie @ The Studio, Edinburgh
New musical Nessie is a beautifully made, child-centred look at climate breakdown and our relationship with the animal world
Nessie comes to us from Capital Theatres and Pitlochry Festival Theatre's Musicals Commissioning Hub and appears to be part of a new wave of family-friendly musicals under 90 minutes long, such as Six. A whole other debate is probably needed around the idea of interval-free plays which end before the night buses start running as compared to two-hour-forty-five shows with intervals, in terms of their cultural value and commercial desire, but that exceeds the remit of this review, so I'll keep to the point.
Shonagh Murray's Nessie is the sort of show I wanted when I was little: taking the climate crisis seriously, firmly rooted in the real rather than the virtual (even if that includes mythical beasties), and beautifully made too. The puppets, lighting and set pieces delight, particularly when Nessa (Eden Barrie) sings 'The Call' deep underwater, and she glows in the dark as the set unfurls water plants. Controversially, my favourite puppet was Oggie the otter, due to Keith Macpherson's kinetic puppetry and his lovely whiskers (Oggie's, not Macpherson's). It's exciting too that the cast is made up of actor-musicians, with accordions, flutes and fiddles providing the atmospheric onstage score.
I hope this show goes onto great things, but I did wonder if Nessie was underpowered in terms of plot. The show didn't seem particularly concerned with urgency in its storytelling; even when 11-year-old Mara (Caitlin Forbes) disappears from town for 24 HOURS, everyone seems essentially chill. But the children in the audience loved it, so its centring of the child experience is spot-on.
Nessie unpacks crucial issues such as the basis of friendship, the logic of morality and the necessity for personal integrity. However, the most uncommon and unique stance this show takes, and one which I endorse, is that wild animals are the most marginalised group in the world, and deserve rights and protections the same way children do in the face of climate crisis.
Nessie, The Studio, Edinburgh, run ended