Page 701 - Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Coverage Book 2023-24

residents could surely relate to thanks to the city’s place along the

Ohio River.

The massive map that curled up at the top and then spilled off the

stage into the orchestra pit set up the war-time birth of main

character Shanty (Andrew Owens). Shuttling the corrugated metal

walls to the side, the cast doubled as crew, setting up classroom

desks and chairs as the wistful, melancholy score gave way to an

amusing, kicky Spanish-language song from teacher Miss Inkley

(Kayleigh Decker) about three rabbits in a tree.

In the Playbill, Clegg explained that the first words uttered in the

performance, McCartney’s school motto (Non nobis solum, Sed toti

mundo, nati. Toti mundo nat — “Not for ourselves, but for the whole

world, we were born”) — and repeated throughout are a reminder of

the “timeless testament to the power of music to move hearts and

minds and effect change.”

Following the first movement, “War,” the second, “School,” found

the restless tween Shanty skipping class to take a nap on gravestones

and dream about the ghosts of his future and past. The high-kicking,

balletic church dance in (“Crypt”) made way for the somber “Father,”

in which Shanty laments the death of his dad.

The mood quickly lightened, though, when the cast rolled out a

miniature house on wheels covered with more maps of Liverpool for

the wedding of Shanty and fiancée Mary Dee (Jacqueline Echols

McCarley), as the elegant soprano was serenaded by an angelic

children’s choir during the pair’s nuptials. Spinning the house