Elsa McTaggart Her Story Edinburgh Fringe 2022 theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall 16th August Review
Elsa McTaggart Her Story is at theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall (Fleming Theatre) at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and is a show to put into your “go to watch list” diary for many different reasons, but mostly for one, Elsa Jean McTaggart.
I have reviewed many shows for this multi-instumentalist and vocalist over many Fringes, but this is perhaps the best I have seen her perform for many years, and part of that is not only Elsa’s talent as a singer and musician, and her ability as a performer to put any audience immediately at ease, but also the honesty with which she tells her life story. Few of us are brave enough to talk about our hopes, our fears, our personal highs and lows to anyone, but to do it in a show and to an audience of strangers takes a special type of courage.
This story takes us from the beginning of Elsa’s life to the person that is performing in front of us now, and like us all that journey from where we were to where we are has often taken a rather twisting and unplanned series of pathways that have led to good moments, bad moments, and everything in between in our life.
There are other roads and paths that we follow in our life, other journeys that we make, but these are the ones that nobody can see, the ones within ourselves, and these are often the most important, and the most difficult paths that any of us have to follow. This, I think, is the most relaxed and most comfortable that I have ever seen Elsa Jean McTaggart on stage and it is clear to me at least that all of Elsa’s travels have finally brought her to meet her own self, and to be very comfortable with the person that Elsa Jean McTaggart has become over her lifetime.
So much of Elsa’s life is in her words and her music, and listening to very early songs and words (some of which are being performed live for the first time at this show) give us little snap-shots, little windows into Elsa’s life at different points in time, and it is often like watching and hearing someone change and grow as a person before you as in these words are stories of not only Elsa’s life but also the many people that she has met along the way.
Elsa Jean McTaggart Her Story is inseparable from songs such as “Green Fields Are Yellow”, “The Old Pathway” and “The Phantom Fiddler”. This show gives a brave and honest insight into the very unique personality and talent of Elsa Jean McTaggart.
Review by Tom King © 2022
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
I have reviewed many shows for this multi-instumentalist and vocalist over many Fringes, but this is perhaps the best I have seen her perform for many years, and part of that is not only Elsa’s talent as a singer and musician, and her ability as a performer to put any audience immediately at ease, but also the honesty with which she tells her life story. Few of us are brave enough to talk about our hopes, our fears, our personal highs and lows to anyone, but to do it in a show and to an audience of strangers takes a special type of courage.
This story takes us from the beginning of Elsa’s life to the person that is performing in front of us now, and like us all that journey from where we were to where we are has often taken a rather twisting and unplanned series of pathways that have led to good moments, bad moments, and everything in between in our life.
There are other roads and paths that we follow in our life, other journeys that we make, but these are the ones that nobody can see, the ones within ourselves, and these are often the most important, and the most difficult paths that any of us have to follow. This, I think, is the most relaxed and most comfortable that I have ever seen Elsa Jean McTaggart on stage and it is clear to me at least that all of Elsa’s travels have finally brought her to meet her own self, and to be very comfortable with the person that Elsa Jean McTaggart has become over her lifetime.
So much of Elsa’s life is in her words and her music, and listening to very early songs and words (some of which are being performed live for the first time at this show) give us little snap-shots, little windows into Elsa’s life at different points in time, and it is often like watching and hearing someone change and grow as a person before you as in these words are stories of not only Elsa’s life but also the many people that she has met along the way.
Elsa Jean McTaggart Her Story is inseparable from songs such as “Green Fields Are Yellow”, “The Old Pathway” and “The Phantom Fiddler”. This show gives a brave and honest insight into the very unique personality and talent of Elsa Jean McTaggart.
Review by Tom King © 2022
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com