Dear Billy
★★★★☆ Devotional
Assembly Rooms (Venue 20): Tue 13 – Sun 25 Aug 2024
Review by Sophie Good
Gary McNair presents a remount of the National Theatre of Scotland’s Dear Billy, A Love Letter to the Big Yin at the Assembly Rooms on George Street for a ten date run at the fringe.
McNair and a group of ‘story gatherers’ have collected people’s personal encounters and experiences of Billy Connelly and presented it in this one man show, with musical accompaniment.
Gary McNai. Pic: Sally Jubb.
The first thing that McNair is careful to say from the outset that he is not playing Billy, nor is Billy expected to appear – and gives the packed out audience an opportunity to leave. They stay, and experience an hour and a half of stories, recollections, songs and silliness all dedicated to the man himself.
Half legend, myth and messiah, there is nothing that the Big Yin doesn’t seem to have relevance to or played a part in people’s lives. From saving them from mental ill-health, to giving hope in the face of disease as well as simply being someone who slept on their granny’s floor. The main thing is that he is wan ae us – and it’s his relationship with people and especially people with a similar background to Connelly that is so richly explore and brought to life in the play.
light and dark
McNair flits between different areas of the stage, embodying the many people who have told their stories. They are different genders and types, but all of whom – just like the man himself – you feel you have met before. Composers Simon Liddell and Jill O’Sullivan bring light and dark to the piece with their two piece band, occasionally asked to bring the energy up and also add to the few songs which add pace and variety.
Jill O’Sullivan and Gary McNair. Pic: Sally Jubb
Claire Halleran’s enjoyable set design incorporates Connelly’s iconic items – banana, wellie boot and round spectacles in bright neon to make his presence felt..
Connelly is a man of an age and so are the audience, for the most part. It’s a show which has appeal to a certain demographic and for fans of his work, but given the packed out auditorium that is an awful lot people.
It’s unclear how exactly the show changes from night to night, perhaps some of the stories are swapped in and out or more are collected on the way. Running at 90 minutes, straight through, it does feel as if it would benefit from a shorter ‘fringe friendly’ version.
volume
The sheer volume of stories that McNair retains and retells and gives every story it’s own personality is nothing short of extraordinary and Sally Reid’s direction for this remount brings the show to life in an engaging and inventive way.
This layering of playing the original storyteller who is in some parts then doing an impression of Connelly can be hard to keep up with at times and the live captioning is useful for many in the audience to keep track of what is being delivered.
It’s a show for anyone who enjoy the stories people tell, and in particular the people of Connelly’s generation who grew up alongside the Big Yin and feel that he is indeed wan ae us.
Running time: One hour and 30 minutes (no interval)
Assembly Rooms (Music Hall), 54 George Street, EH2 2LR (Venue 20)
Tuesday 13 – Sunday 25 August 2024
Daily (not 14, 21): 16.50pm
Details and tickets at: Book here
Website: www.nationaltheatrescotland.com
Facebook: @NationalTheatreScotland
Instagram: @ntsonline
X: @NTSonline
Simon Liddell and Jill O’Sullivan. Pic: Sally Jubb
ENDS
Absolute rubbish. Mediocre trying to piggyback on talent
‘Dear Billy’? ‘Dear God’ (make it stop) more like it. Excruciating from start to finish. The musicians did a good job trying to rescue this feat of narcissism but even they couldn’t. Billy Connolly could take a snippet of conversation and weave it into gold. This show could hardly get a laugh from who knows how many hours of recorded recollections retold in cringeworthy Connollyesque . There’s a lesson there. Avoid this show like the plague ☹️