Latitude Festival: The Lost Disc – Cabaret Tent

Writers: Will Adamsdale and Ed Gaughan

Director: Tom Parry

Reviewer: Kris Hallett

Obsession is a funny thing. It can drive even the sanest person towards the edge, flipping sense and order into mayhem and chaos. Will Adamsdale and Ed Gaughan’s new musical/comedy/play hybrid sees a music journo disappear down a conspiracy theory of his own making. Somewhere out there, he proposes, is a mythical bootleg recording featuring three of the lost genius’ of the late fifties, early sixties scene. His odyssey to discover this tape leads him to lose his job, his relationship and perhaps even his mind. The only thing that matters is the prize. This recording becomes his everything.

It’s a work whose hybrid spirit fits the ethos of the festival like a glove. Each of the three artists who are believed to have contributed to the work is given their own biography, complete with original compositions and interviews with the managers and hangers-on who knew them best. The music stylings range from Carnaby Street, late 50’s pop, to Sinatra style big band Christmas tunes ‘that inspired Bing’, and country rock. Adamsdale takes on each of the singers, flipping between them with a change of hat and a shift in tone and accent. He is supported brilliantly by the wonderful Victoria Elliott who portrays professors, partners and estranged daughters along with knocking her own vocals out of the park and Gaughan who runs the gamut of on the make managers. Meanwhile, John Lightbody charts the drive and eventual desperation of a man who has put all his eggs in one very long shot.

The Lost Disc had a tricky task in rousing a slightly lethargic festival crowd at 11:00 on a Saturday morning, into going on a journey of discovery. It’s to the productions credit that by the curtain call, cheers rang out around the cabaret tent.

Who knew, music can even cure a raging hangover.

Reviewed on 14 July 2018 | Image: Contributed