Make Good: The Post Office Scandal Review

Samuel Gosrani, Victoria Brazier and Charlotte Delia © Andrew Billington

A beautifully moving piece with a bright and electric future.

We've heard it time and time again, "a musical about a WWII Operation, whatever next?", "why did you go see a musical about balloons?" and now "how do you write a musical about such a heinous topic as the Post Office Scandal?" That's how the Postman (in a hilariously nonchalant portrayal by the multi-talented Ed Gaughan) soft opens this new musical. He addresses us as an audience directly to bring us into the Fenny Compton Village Hall and put us right in the middle of the action straight away.

Make Good: The Post Office Scandal is a new musical with a book by Jeanie O'Hare (Queen Margaret) and music and lyrics by Olivier Nominated Jim Fortune (Mr Gum and the Dancing Bear). The pair have struck gold in concept and style - O'Hare's book lends itself hilariously and heartbreakingly to the real voices it portrays while Fortune's score is an amalgamation of styles that rouse, pastiche, and are crafted to always elicit the right emotional response. Some of the scenes are inspired, with a lot of lines and lyrics that'll hit you like a sledgehammer, and hopefully the show's bright future will allow for further development to dust off any cobwebs that lurk inside the libretto. But when they get it right, boy do they get it right.

The show highlights the necessity and value of the feeling of community. The talented cast of 4 brings to life a whole plethora of characters - at times it feels like there are 60 of them on stage. Each is an exceptionally strong actor, with accents galore and enough Brechtian-style character changes to make The 39 Steps jealous. Victoria Brazier (who plays Elsie), Charlotte Delima (Indira) and Samuel Gosrani (Mohandas) deliver gut-punchingly rounded portrayals of a multitude of roles with precision and respect for their craft and the real people that their story is based on.

O'Hare and Fortune also owe a hand to Elle While's (BBC, Shakespeare's Globe) slick and imaginative direction. While's ability to create a thousand different spaces in this limited fringe space is impressive; she never allows the pace to drop but knows exactly when to suspend us in our emotional state. The scenes are dynamic and move with vigour but don't ever feel rushed, and her leaning into styles from 'rock concert' to 'Pinter-esque drama' never feels forced. Perhaps if the choice wasn't made to have cast members change slowly so as not to 'pull focus' (by which they're actually pulling more - just put the coat on!) then I'd suggest While's direction was near-perfect.

The show contains lighting design by Jenny Roxburgh and sound design by Dan Balfour, both of whom created something that broke us out of the confines of this black-box theatre, or often Village Hall where the production is touring around the country. Roxburgh’s lighting is clever in its sense of feeling, while Balfour’s sound is ground breaking in its subtlety and precision - I’m sure owing to his own talent and the talent and hard work of both cast and crew. Along with a simple and effective set design by Carla Goodman, Maimuna Memon (Additional Music), Zac Gvi (Musical Director) and music team Màth Roberts, Ed Hicks and Rowan Elliott, it’s clear that everyone has come together to deliver the best that they can do to honour those that this story is based on.

The show, in its current iteration, isn't 'technically perfect' but the emotion that flooded the sold-out ~110-seat Omnibus Theatre as we sobbed our way through a deserved standing ovation proves that the piece achieved exactly what it set out to do.

Make Good: The Post Office Scandal continues to tour the UK until December. Tickets can be found here.