1 – 5 November

A recent exhibition in Penzance of the work of the Newlyn painter, Walter Langley, gave us some insight into the hard lives of Cornish fishermen in the past. Undoubtedly things have improved for fishermen beyond recognition since Victorian times, though certain hardships and dangers have remained the same. Whilst Fisherman’s Friends is based on a true story about a group of singers who came together to celebrate their distinctive culture in the songs and shanties that have been handed down, nevertheless a certain amount of glamourisation is inevitable in giving us a vision of ‘Merrie England-on-Sea’.

The songs, a mix of the traditional and contemporary folk songs, including a setting of John Masefield’s haunting Sea-Fever with it’s very appropriate opening, ‘I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky’, are what drives the show, with the road to fame being the vehicle which holds them together.

There is the only slightly tongue-in-cheek representation of Cornwall as an ethnic minority enclave – some might argue separate country – populated by good, earthy, salty, down-to-earth, no-nonsense, no-truck-with-outsiders fisher folk. Maybe it’s something peculiar to sailors, but there was a definite tendency amongst the cast for a plonking of feet, as if the desire to plant oneself solidly on terra firma wherever an opportunity arose was irresistible.

Given the nature of the real-life story it was inevitable that the approach made by the writer, Amanda Whittington (based on the film written by Nick Moorcroft, Meg Leonard and Piers Ashworth), would be an ensemble affair. The upshot being that everyone gets to say their bit in a kind of job-share of plot exegesis. There is plenty of knocking of anyone not Cornish, including a weeing over the Welcome to Devon sign on their journey to London and snippets of Cornish history are thrown in for good measure.

Danny (Jason Langley) the A&R man who discovers the group whilst licking his wounds on a break from London and is initially given short shrift by the locals, turns out to be a diamond geezer. His growing attachment to all things Cornish, in particular Alwyn (Parisa Shahmir) who sings like an angel and is the daughter of Jim (James Gaddas) the leading figure in the group, is a sub plot which adds a bit of love interest as well as giving a focus to an otherwise less than gripping plot.

Apart from the songs the show is a paean to the strength and resilience of community, and in  Danny’s story the lure of the authentic. The show falls solidly into what we have come to call ‘feelgood’ theatre and with an entertaining song never more than a few minutes away, deservedly so.

★★★★☆  Graham Wyles, 2nd November, 2022

Photo credit: Pamela Raith