Fisherman’s Friends at the new Hall for Cornwall
After three years and £26m, Truro’s Hall for Cornwall finally reopens its doors with the musical Fisherman’s Friends, based on the successful film of the same name, itself based on the real life story of a group of shanty singing Port Isaac fishermen.
The scaffolding on both Boscawen Street and Lemon Quay during renovations had been an eyesore for so long, it was wonderful to have it finally removed (on Lemon Quay anyway; construction is still ongoing in other parts of the building) to reveal… well, a very plain stone facade.
And all this for 300 more seats (increasing from 965 to 1,300). Now, I know theatre is elitist and expensive but this works out as, erm, more than £83,000 per seat. How they can equate three years of lost revenue with some more seating and a better bar is beyond me. However, with the sad closure of the imaginative Kneehigh last year and Rogue Theatre wisely keeping to Tehidy Woods for its performances, this is Cornwall’s main theatre.
I’ll forgive them teething problems of course, but we queued up for five minutes outside the theatre before realising it was just the queue for the bar; to get into the theatre we just waltzed in, we weren’t asked for tickets. There was an usher of sorts, who we asked where our seats were, but she didn’t have a clue.
Anyway, I’ve noted before how I ended up watching the film Fisherman’s Friends three times – and didn’t even like it that much, so I wasn’t hugely looking forward to the musical but I must admit it was… rousing (an adjective surely every review will use). Though apparently “loosely” based on the film, the musical was occasionally let down by copying and pasting whole chunks from the film, which presumably everyone in the audience had seen.
At times it felt clichéd and hackneyed – do the Cornish really never tire of the same old jibes about Devon/London/anywhere that’s not Cornwall/even parts of Cornwall (mainly Padstow)? A character pissing on a Welcome to Devon sign was not only offensive but bordered on hate crime (imagine if he’d pissed on a sign relating to blacks/women/Muslims – they’d be riots). Obviously, the audience found it hilarious. Other elements – bad phone reception, a gay pub in London, the tide ruining Londoner’s expensive cars parked too near the beach, evil second home owners – hilarious if you’re Cornish, I don’t know, to anyone else a bit offensive and tedious.
The constant taunts about Londoners is ironic on several levels (What do you call a Cornish person with a chip on each shoulder? Balanced). Firstly, in the story it is a Londoner who not only plucks the band from obscurity and lands them a record contract, but saves the local pub from being turned into a poncy hotel.
Secondly – and this would go for the film as well (there are no film or TV production studios in the county) – hardly anyone involved is from Cornwall. The whole county is full of companies saying local this and local that, but it’s usually only minimal wage if it’s for the locals at all, the rest of the profits leave county immediately, along with the talent, who also tend not to be local.
In the case of Fisherman’s Friends: The Musical – only one musician is Cornish, and two of the actors are. Obviously, the ubiquitous (self-proclaimed) Kernow King, Edward Rowe (star of the stunning Bait) is in it. Unfortunately he can’t sing.
There’s also a black actor (the only comment so far on the CornwallLive review of the show is ‘Just remind me who exactly is the black member of the fisherman's friends?’), Which is a fair point: there is no black singer in the real band. There’s probably not a black person living in Port Isaac. I work in the capital city Truro every day, and can go for weeks without seeing a black person in town.
There wasn’t a single black or Asian person in the audience (but two black actors on stage, a woman as well as the guy). Certainly there were a lot of white people of a certain age (they may as well have paid some black and Asian people to sit in the audience if they wanted to show their inclusiveness and ‘theatre is for all’ ethos). And a lot of doctors. Forty of them, in fact. What happened was, during the show an audience member shouted out ‘Turn the lights on!’ Which someone backstage did. At first we thought it part of the show, until the actors stopped acting and the curtain went down. There was brief talk of smoke and a fire until we worked out a woman had fainted on the balcony. Apparently, forty doctors rushed to help her.
What I find odd about Fisherman’s Friends – film and musical – is how the story of them is more famous than the band or the songs. Who can name a member of the Fisherman’s Friends? Or recognise any of them? They’ve been played by two sets of actors (on film and stage); quite unique for a relatively unknown band. But the story lives, whether totally true or not, it’s rousing. There’s even a sequel to the film coming out, called Fisherman’s Friends 2. Can’t wait to see it three times.
Previously on Barnflakes
Fisherman’s Friends vs Bait