REVIEW: Wallace: A Musical – Pavilion Theatre, Glasgow

 Expanded from its original 50 minute form presented at Oran Mor’s A Play A Pie And A Pint Autumn 2025 season, Wallace: A Musical now runs at a fleshed out, full length of I hour 55 minutes including interval, and to be perfectly honest the expansion has reduced the impact of its punchy former self.

The story of a figure who galvanises Scottish patriots into a frenzy of flag waving fury, it questions everything we know about William Wallace. It examines the cult of personality that surrounds him and brings to light the fact that almost nothing exists in Scottish historical record about this famous everyman (which he undoubtedly was not), certainly nothing from his actual lifetime, unlike his contemporaries. Almost everything we know is entirely apocryphal. Despite this, we Scots have believed, unchallenged, every word as true.

Wallace: A Musical presents a “two sides to every story” tale, only in this case it’s three. The first presented by Ross Mann (billed as Scotsman) lays out everything we traditionally know about Wallace: the rallying of the people, the win at Stirling Bridge against all the odds, all the way to his execution at the hands of the oppressor of the Scots, Edward Longshanks. It’s enough for any red-blooded Scot to rise up and take arms.

We next switch to Edward’s perspective, as we head to the interval. Manasa Tagica (Sassenach) puts out to the world that it wasn’t Wallace but his right-hand man, the superior strategist, Andrew de Moray who won the Battle of Stirling Bridge. A man whose story was documented during his lifetime.

The momentum is well and truly lost with the inclusion of an interval. It resumes with a third perspective – questioning did Wallace even exist? Was he real or a myth? This sequence also addresses the absence of a female narrative in all of this.

Annoyingly for the creators, comparisons will be made with the theatrical behemoth Hamilton. It instantly addresses the issue of an inherently Scottish tale being told through Hip Hop. It acknowledges its roots in Black US culture and highlights that this iteration of Hip Hop is a new form, expressing local culture. The problem with using Hip Hop to tell a historical tale is that it has been done before and arguably to complete and utter theatrical perfection. This is a pale impression, with simplistic beats and an accent that doesn’t entirely  lend itself well to the clarity needed to punch home the lyrics. Honestly, it feels a bit cringe at times.

Mann, Tagica, and the trio of “wummin” played by Patricia Panther, Madeline Grieve and Kimberly Mandindo do their best with the material and provide highlights throughout. It is composer and lyricist Dave Hook, taking on the roles of DJ/Wallace who is the weakest link in the chain.

The lighting does the production no favours, as it points out to the auditorium for the most part, leaving the actors surrounded by a misty gloom and the audience temporarily blinded. The new tiered staging allows the production to better fill a large auditorium and moves the production away from the intimate pub-setting of the original. What the work hasn’t done is expand itself strongly enough to do the same.

I desperately wanted to love this, but it is a classic example that bigger isn’t always better.

Runs until 26 September 2016 and continues to tour | Image: Sally Jubb