ACTOR and writer Pauline Lockhart, co-creator with composer Alan Penman of this lunchtime musical, has a fifth degree black belt in Taekwondo.
It is with great relief, therefore, that I am able to report that it is an excellent piece of theatre (after all, I have no desire to be lying in a hospital bed reading the headline: “Theatre critic kicked through plate glass window of Scottish playhouse.”)
Forever Home is a co-production by the theatrical powerhouse that is A Play, a Pie and a Pint (which is based in the splendid Òran Mór venue in the West End of Glasgow), Pitlochry Festival Theatre and the Gaiety Theatre, Ayr (where it concludes its initial run next week). I say “initial run” because this smartly written, brilliantly performed, unapologetically sentimental musical surely deserves to be revived, and soon.
Lockhart’s book and lyrics tell the story of Caitlin (powerfully acted and beautifully sung by the immensely talented Kirsty Findlay), a Scottish teenager, adopted as a young child, who has gone off the proverbial rails. Alongside her pal Nicole (Chloe Hodgson, superb in multiple roles), Caitlin has pulled one prank too many, and faces heavy sanction from her somewhat stereotypically buttoned-up head teacher Ms Mackenzie (Hodgson, again).
Needless to say, all of this is proving stressful for Caitlin’s long-suffering, single mum (the excellent Christina Strachan). With the nerves of all concerned stretched to breaking point, something has to give.
Spoiler-averse as I am, I won’t divulge the dramatic turn that the play takes. Suffice it to say that the plot shift is both entirely believable and a nightmare that has prowled around in the brains of many, if not most parents of teenage kids.
Lockhart’s words, whether in song or dialogue, spark with quick, sassy, working-class humour and entertainingly well-observed “bad girl” behaviour. Penman’s constantly engaging score – which is by turns upbeat, urgent and emotive – is perfectly attuned to the action.
Caitlin and Nicole, mayhem merchants though they are, are tremendously humorous and endearing characters. Brilliantly drawn and fabulously acted, their rapid-fire backchat is as hilarious on-stage as it would be infuriating off it.
We know things are bad between the girls when Caitlin fails in her attempt to buy Nicole off with a “4000-puff vape”. A last-ditch sit down between Ms Mackenzie, Caitlin and her mum looks to be on the skids when the teenager takes a selfie while giving the heedie the finger.
Strachan’s Mum is utterly recognisable as a working-class woman juggling the demands of work, bills and raising a truculent teenager who is more likely to slam a door in her face than give her a hug. However, both Lockhart’s book and Niloo-Far Khan’s appropriately spare directing create a constant and growing sense of the emotional anguish beneath Caitlin’s outward bravado.
Forever Home reaches its wonderfully sympathetic conclusion too soon. Impressive in every department, this lovely musical simply has to be back on our stages before long.
At the Gaiety Theatre, Ayr, September 21-23: thegaiety.co.uk
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