Arts:Blog

Theatre Review: There’s A Place ***

Michael Cox reviews ‘a performance that simmers at best.’

There’s a really good play trying to find the light in There’s A Place.

Four friends at the height of Beatlemania have scored some exciting intelligence—rather than staying in a posh hotel while playing a gig in Dundee, the Fab Four are actually booked into a hideaway chalet in rural Perthshire.

Instead of going to the Dundee concert and screaming at their heroes with hundreds of others, they have decided to brave the Scottish elements to stakeout the cabins in hopes of a glimpse of their idols. And who knows…maybe they’ll even be invited to have brunch?

When it comes to the subject matter of The Beatles, most angles have been covered. However, rarely are the fans who devoted their time and passion in celebration of John, Paul, George and Ringo at the forefront. Mostly girls and young women, these fans knew all the minutia on the fab four, looking for clues and insight wherever they could—their knowledge and devotion would put any modern fan to shame, and they had none of the conveniences of social media or Google. These were not mindless fans possessed by hysteria (as depicted at the time), but intelligent and insightful young women.

To look at such devotion while also dealing with themes of ‘coming of age’ and the changing and somewhat challenging times of the sixties from a female point of view is indeed a great idea that could have led to an intriguing drama.

Alas, what we have instead is a half-baked experience. Every plot point either feels overcooked or underdone, and many themes are thrown around with little depth, resulting in moments that feel scattered and lacking focus.

The second half improves, but it’s a performance that simmers at best.

Director Sally Reid does a solid job with staging and pacing, and the design concepts are interesting. The company are engaging: these are characters who deserve theatrical exploration, and time is well spent in watching them interact—to The Beatles from afar, but more interestingly with each other.

Nevertheless, it does come down to Gabriel Quigley’s script. There’s nothing wrong with There’s A Place, but with solid ideas that should have been better explored and developed, it’s a bird that really should have sung.

There’s a Place performs at Perth Theatre until November 2, 2024.

Photo by Mihaela Bodlovic.