Appointment with The Wicker Man

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Make sure you take the time to read the programme given to you before Appointment with The Wicker Man begins. It provides a brief history of the Loch Parry players—the am-dram group at the centre of this panto-like production from the National Theatre of Scotland—and biographies of the characters, which may alleviate confusion when you’re unsure of who’s related/married/going out with whom.

It also makes very clear that this is not a straight adaptation of the cult 1973 horror film The Wicker Man, or the woeful Nicholas Cage remake. Instead, it's a play within a play: the enthusiastic Loch Parry players are remaking The Wicker Man as a musical. They seem harmless at first, if a bit odd. But when a hotshot TV actor from Glasgow (played by Harry Potter’s Sean Biggerstaff) arrives to replace a cast member who’s mysteriously disappeared, it seems they all have their own secrets.

This is a slick and colourful comedy, written by Chewin’ the Fat’s Greg Hemphill and Donald McCleary and is directed by outgoing NTS Artistic Director Vicky Featherstone. Chloe Lamford’s sets are fantastic, especially the forbidding wicker man. But, although it’s a play that’s meant to be over the top, it feels a little too overdone. The songs are suitably amateurish but that also means they’re not memorable or engaging, though there is some very funny deployment of the original Wicker Man music. But the cast has a lot of fun, which means the audience does too. And while it’s perhaps not one for die-hard fans, you don’t need to know the film to appreciate its sending-up either.