I first read Mackenzie's novel as a boy in the 50s and loved it but have not looked at it since so I was interested to see whether it will still give the same pleasure and how it would convert to a musical.
I wasn't disappointed. This production is great fun and a wonderfully entertaining way to spend just over an hour in the company of some delightfully odd characters. For those who don't know the story, it is wartime on the Scottish island of Great Toddy (appropriate name!) and there is a whisky drought which is having a terrible effect on a cast of characters who include, among others, McPhee who collapses and dies; the islanders believe, because of the lack of the water of life, the priest, the dour "Wee Free" Mrs Campbell and her dominated son George; Macroon who won't allow his daughter Perggy to marry a foreigner (Sgt Fred Odd, who is stationed on the island), and Waggett, in charge of the local Home Guard.
Condensing a novel to a full-length play is difficult enough, but to get it down to seventy minutes, including a dozen musical numbers, while still retaining the important bits of the plot and the characters, is a major achievement.
It is well written and well performed, with the cast providing instrumental accompaniment as well as singing. Well worth catching as a piece of sheer entertainment amid the seriousness of much of the Fringe.