Theatre reviews: I'll Be Seeing You | The Whaler's Wife

I’ll Be Seeing You, Pitlochry Festival Theatre ★★★

The Whaler’s Wife, Oran Mor, Glasgow ★★★

In interviews about the Pitlochry premiere of his new play I’ll Be Seeing You, the veteran American playwright Martin Sherman promised us a play about Liberace that would not really be about Liberace; and he has certainly succeeded in delivering that, with this strange and tentative but occasionally beautiful show.

As the play opens, a young 21st century writer, played with terrific, engaging energy by Fra Fee, has been commissioned to write a play about the great postwar pianist and entertainer Liberace; and is struggling, because he hates everything Liberace represents, in terms of a closeted gay life cloaked in euphemism and lies.

The young writer’s struggles are interrupted, though, by Liberace himself, who makes a grand entrance in sparkling white suit and feathers, intent not on defending himself, but on teasing the writer for his obsession with the 1959 libel case in which Liberace sued the Daily Mirror for implying he was homosexual, and won by blatantly lying about his sexuality.

READ MORE: Simon Russell Beale on playing Liberace at Pitlochry: 'the image he built was quite complex'

And this, roughly speaking, is where the play remains stuck for most of its 80 minute length, with Simon Russell Beale’s distinctly salacious Liberace taunting, seducing, and otherwise mocking the lovely but sanctimonious young writer; attempts to liven things up by introducing two gorgeous chorus-boys in hot pants, or Anne Lacey as everyone’s mother, move things forward not a jot.

Then suddenly, towards the end, the young writer disappears, to be replaced by his much older, sadder, and wiser self, played by Martin Sherman himself in what suddenly becomes an almost unbearably sweet and intense interaction with Beale’s Liberace. One of the many strange things about this show is that Simon Russell Beale sings absolutely beautifully, as Liberace himself did not. And his version of the song I’ll Be Seeing You, in this final scene, is simply unforgettable – beautiful, poignant, full of regret, yet still quietly convinced of the redeeming power of love.

Shawney Henderson, Emma Tracey and Joyce Falconer in The Whaler's Wife at Oran Mor

Women’s history, meanwhile, is centre stage in the latest Play, Pie, Pint drama The Whaler’s Wife, written by Izzy Gray, and set in Orkney 200 years ago. Three women gather at Hamnavoe harbour to wave their men off on the annual Arctic whaling expedition; the two older women, vividly played by Joyce Faulkner and Shawney Henderson, are glad to be rid of the menfolk for a while.

Newlywed Bess, though, has a different view, and a vital secret to keep; even when another set of secrets - involving a kidnapped and imprisoned Arctic wife - begin to emerge. And the mood, atmosphere and music created by this show are intense enough to hold the interest; even when the shape of the story is less than clear, and the pace unhurried at best, in the long months of waiting for the whalers’ return.

I’ll Be Seeing You is at Pitlochry Festival Theatre until 11 October. The Whaler’s Wife is at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, 29 September-3 October, the Gaiety Theatre, Ayr, 6-10 October, and on tour in Ayrshire, until 17 October.

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