Musicals and opera review: Wychwood
This ambitious but thumpingly amateurish gothic portmanteau is the very definition of a mixed bag.
Star rating: **
Venue: theSpace on Niddry Street (Venue 9)
Set in a supposedly abandoned asylum, Wychwood House, most of the acting is excruciating and most of the stories are near incomprehensible.
The songs, however, are largely fine and occasionally decently performed but – by some miracle – the last and longest tale, about a doctor haunted by his murdered wife’s screaming skull, is actually good and features a memorable duet between the homicidal physician’s late and current wives.
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Hide AdIt would be interesting to see what a really talented company could achieve with this material. Even so, they’d have to junk at least half of it because it’s mostly dreadful – and not in a good way.
Until 20 August. Today 1pm.