Entering the Princess Royal Suite at the Royal Scots Club there was a buzz in the air. I had no idea what ‘Ordinary Days’ was about or what to expect, but that buzz was exciting. Only running for three days, it feels like the cast and crew are just itching to show the Edinburgh Fringe what they’ve got.
Ordinary Days follows the lives of 4 people living in New York City; Claire and Jason, trying to manoeuvre their failing relationship, and Deb and Warren, who acquaint after a lost journal and a meeting at the Met Museum sparks a friendship, all of them realising there is more to life than the situations they currently find themselves in.
Mhairi McCall excels as Deb. Her voice is straight off the West End. She demonstrates incredible vocal ability and control. Every syllable is clearly heard throughout and her acting through singing is truly great. McCall shows a perfect understanding of comedic timing with a nuanced comic performance. Deb is enormously stressed and panicked, something that is painfully relatable in a modern world, and McCall makes this feel endearing rather than repulsive, which it could easily have been in the wrong hands. With lots of demanding and high-emotion songs to sing, McCall traverses them with ease, hauling the audience along for the ride.
Ethan Baird plays Jason with unmistakable freedom. Jason is in love with someone who is shutting him off. It could be very easy for an actor to fall into a woe-is-me feeling, but Baird always delivers every emotional outburst into song with a true and childlike optimism that is comforting to watch. Baird finds a loveable character in a love-starved Jason, demanding the audience feel pity for him and hanker to see him find easier times. Baird’s voice is beautiful, and he performs every song brilliantly. However, the piano is loud in that large space, and, at infrequent points, his voice was getting lost 4 or 5 rows back. Whether it be getting mic’d up, or just leaning more into projection, Baird deserves to be heard as he has very clearly put a lot of work and passion into his performance.
Joe Hunter is great as Warren. Hunter gives a big, lively performance and, being the first character the audience meets, literally – Warren walks through the stalls at the start handing out fliers, they set up the perfect tone for the show by grasping hold of the audience’s attention and never letting go. Hunter’s Warren is incredibly likeable from the get-go, and they radiate an admirable naivety that is remarkably watchable. The ear-to-ear grin and positive energy Hunter brings to this brilliant character is so infectious. We watch as Deb quickly warms to Warren and the audience can’t help but follow along. Hunter’s vocal work is also very strong, holding their own in quartets and evoking emotion in a moment of rare weakness for Warren while still managing to earn laughs is a testament to Hunter’s ability to bring an audience on an emotional journey.
Sarah Dingwall portrays Claire brilliantly. Dingwall delivers an emotionally vulnerable performance; using her beautiful singing voice to sway the audience one way and then yank them in the opposite moments later. Claire is a gentle character with lots of baggage, but Dingwall exceeds in delivering a huge emotional switch and character revelation that leaves very few dry eyes in the room. Dingwall portrays a slightly nervous Claire, a trait which feels like it bleeds into performance. A slight line slip-up was handled brilliantly and laughed off in a character-fitting way. Dingwall is another that deserves to be heard and must project to the back, over the piano, so everyone can hear that voice.
Steven Segaud delivers an amazing performance as Musical Director/accompanist. With just a lone piano and 4 singers, Segaud manages to make this sound at times like a full company with orchestra. Segaud plays non-stop for 90 minutes perfectly. At times he intentionally fades into the background to be simple accompaniment, and others he steals the moment with a quick and hilarious trill or chord stab that marries perfectly with the action on stage. His occasional interactions with the cast were joyous and really added to the authentic and small scale feel of this production, letting Segaud have his well-earned moment in the spotlight.
Jenny Tamplin does a really great job in the director’s chair. There’s not loads to work with on the stage, but what she has she uses subtly and cleverly. The boxed-in staging, helped by having the not-in-use actors sit at the side of stage and watch, or come on to play other bit parts gives the stage this feeling of New York City crowdedness. The decision to have Segaud be involved and acknowledged as a character on stage and utilising all his comical moments is genius. The audience immediately appreciates the music even more and feels like this really is one unified group up there on stage. The use of confetti and colourful paper for a climactic emotional set piece was a messy one, but an effective one as, even though the first few rows get drowned in a colourful shower, they can’t help but feel involved and euphoric along with the characters on stage, truly brining the audience in even closer to this fantastic production.
Overall, Ordinary Days was fantastic. The show is one and a half hours, but it goes by in what feels like 30 minutes due to seamless transitions, quick-paced music that’s remarkably easy to follow and a style of show design that is inventive and exciting. The performances as a whole are so strong that the whole thing is a masterclass in acting through song. The venue is slightly out of the way for the Fringe as its not in the central hub area, but the room feels effective and fitting for the piece and surprisingly spacious. As stated before, its run is only three days so I cannot recommend enough making the small journey to see a musical that is refreshing, exciting and outrageously funny.
Theatre Scotland 
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