Wallace: A Musical – Scaled-Up Production Is Innovative and Funny But Needs Honing

Having triumphed at A Play, A Pie and A Pint, at the Oran Mor, Raw Material have picked another gem in the small-scale venue to transfer into the equivalent of an arena tour. It worked with Noisemaker’s SCOTS, but with Wallace: A Musical there are a few fundamentals needing attention.

You can see why Wallace: A Musical gets such a scaled-up transfer. It has a strong subject matter, familiar to its audience, a strong musical focus, with enough innovation to mark it out as unique, strong performances from most of the cast, and a new theatricality which lends itself to bigger venues.

You can also see why a short 2026 tour with a bigger 2027 tour planned – the vehicle gets a test run to sort out any problems.

The problems? The script muddles itself from being the story of a hero, the narrative of a villain and the creation of a myth. The first is presented by ‘Scotsman’ (Ross Mann), the second by ‘Sassenach’ (Manasa Tagica) and the third by the triumvirate of ‘wummin’ (Madelaine Grieve, Kimberley Mandindo and Patricia Panther).

So, Wallace doesn’t tell the story of William Wallace but sets out to examine the story of Wallace. Starting with the familiar story, it then is twisted in a challenge by an English voice, before the three women challenge the whole story, as there is little evidence of his existence from contemporary accounts, and evidence that others played an equal part – not least the women themselves.  

The script delivers trunk loads of humorous moments which are delivered with skill by the cast. Dave Hook as both the DJ and Wallace is a step too far. The character of Wallace needs to be either strong enough that we all want to follow him into battle or absent altogether – making him real onstage means we have the luxury to judge him but If history cannot grasp who the man is from the accounts and recollections of the time, then perhaps, neither should the audience.

Directorially, some of the sequences struggle for flow and on more than one occasion actors were walking to marks and mic stands rather than finding a creative entrance.

Technically, I loved the lighting and the staging, but at times it felt empty, lost in the venue. Costumes felt similarly lost between an attempt at representation and a nod to hip-hop. Personally, I would also remove the explanation at the beginning of the show of why they incorporated hip-hop. Scotland has a rich hip-hop culture and the best way of legitimising it is to have confidence in it as an art form and get on with it.

But…I really liked it. To me, it shows a maturity in Scottish culture by not being afraid to challenge the mythology we create for ourselves. It has elements that work well and with a rerun next year, let’s hope for a retread that includes doing more than just kicking the tyres.

Wallace: The Musical is at the King’s Theatre, Edinburgh 30th September until 3rd October before a full Scottish tour in September/October 2027, visiting Adam Smith, The Beacon, Ayr Gaiety, Dundee Rep, Pert Theatre, Eden Court, Macrobert Arts Centre, The Byre, and then the Tron. 

Tickets for Wallace: A Musical at the King’s Theatre, Glasgow, available here

Photo credit: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan

Wallace