Glorious Grease

Arran High School surpassed itself with last week’s run of Grease. The show was packed with energy and verve and sheer, ebullient sexiness, and wowed the audience from the first beat of the highly professional band. By the end, everyone in the packed house was on their feet, shouting and applauding and doing their best to join in the snazzy arm movements of Three Sided.

Let’s face it, Grease doesn’t give its players a lot of help. The story is minimal, following Little Miss Modest from jilted misery to putting on the slap and getting her man – but such progress can be truly meaningful when you are seventeen and in love. In any case, the plot was hardly the point. This was a celebration of youth and energy and roaring hormones. The production went for that bare-fisted, with everyone concerned giving it all they’d got, and more.

The cast, with its gloriously assorted range of shapes and sizes, consisted of confident and assertive individuals who were amazingly funny as well as dancing and singing like true professionals. Clearly, David Lambert and Nicola Jane Swinton had done a tremendous job with the music and choreography, creating a solid skill in the whole cast that enabled individual actors to grab it with both hands and make the most of it. Huge credit, though, must go to Heather Johnston, the director, who brought her years of stage experience to the job of creating an astonishing production. In the short time available, the learning and rehearsal added up to an almost impossibly daunting task, but somehow, the strength was found to make it work. From the opening number, Summer Nights, the show was sassy and assured, the punchy chorus creating a solid setting for the star roles – which, in every case, were stunning performances.

Robert Ingham’s Danny exuded laid-back charm. He had the easy movement, big smile and rumpled, ‘don’t care’ look that clearly made him every girl’s dream, and yet he was matched by an equal level of talent from the other guys, each of whom brought a distinctive personality to the gang. Their customised car, ‘Greased Lighting’, created by Steve Garraway, made almost surreal bonnet-first appearances when needed, and somehow added to the sense that this was a magical summer that held a group of youngsters captive and would never be forgotten. Céile Swinton-Boyle in the lead role of Sandy was vulnerable and diffident and very chaste, until through desperation she donned the sexy gear and transformed herself into a star who swept the opposition aside. Eilidh Blair as Rizzo (the opposition in question), acted, danced and sang like a true professional, a Bluebell Girl hoofing her way through the show with a pizzazz that wowed the audience and left them amazed. Gabrielle Allison, playing Jan, the goofy, bespectacled food-gobbler of the girl-gang, was amazingly funny and managed to disguise her real talent as a dancer until it was at last called for – but the show depended on every member of the cast for its knock-out effect. The big numbers were solidly together, every player confident and exuding an energy that hit the audience between the eyes and left them still hit when they staggered out of the roaring auditorium into the summer night.

A full gallery of all the pictures from Grease (there are nearly 300!) generously supplied to the Voice for Arran by Arran Photography can be found on the Grease Gallery Page.