Location York

The Sunday Times - UK

A show about the vet James Herriot deserves its premiere in Yorkshire, writes Neil Drysdale

Theatre companies and acting troupes tend to be more interesting bodies off stage than on it. Internecine warfare and back-stabbing are invariably lurking behind every paper moon.

Yet, when the Aberdeen-based author Mike Gibb and his Thirsk-based composer colleague Ian Kirk launched their new musical collaboration, Herriot, a show devoted to the life and times of Alf Wight — whose James Herriot stories transformed him into the world’s most famous veterinary surgeon — one might have expected a surge of enthusiasm from those clamouring to stage the production in Yorkshire.

Once Gibb and Kirk’s offering was lent the seal of approval by Hambleton council and Wight’s son and daughter, Jim Wight and Rosie Page, both men anticipated unlimited support for their project. But instead of a world premiere in Yorkshire, the show looks set to open in Scotland, which Gibb compares to debuting a play about Robert Burns in Canterbury.

“It is an understatement to say we are surprised and disappointed by how this has turned out so far. We received a genuinely enthusiastic reaction in August and I have been in touch with a whole variety of organisations, both professional and amateur, but none of them have requested a copy of the script,” says Gibb. A stalwart of the entertainment business, Gibb has had two works shortlisted for the Cameron Mackintosh Foundation’s Highland quest for a new musical, and has filled theatres with such works as Five Pound and Twa Bairns, based on the Tay Bridge disaster.

“As matters stand, it looks as if I might have to open Herriot somewhere in Scotland. It’s a bit daft, but this is one of the perils of this vocation. Namely that you think you have brought something new for audiences to enjoy and then the companies sit down with their committees and decide that the world needs another version of Oklahoma! or The King and I.”

Ian Brown of the West Yorkshire Playhouse said Herriot wasn’t their type of piece. Annie Kingsley of Harrogate theatre confirmed that her organisation had another production lined up for 2006.

There was no response from either the Theatre Royal in York or the Georgian theatre in Richmond, Yorkshire, while the long-established York Musical Theatre Company (YMTC), which initially seemed the most promising option, has elected to proceed with a fresh dose of Rodgers and Hammerstein.

“You have to bear in mind we get no grants or outside funding,” says Jim Welsman, the chairman of YMTC. “While James Herriot is famous for his work with animals, that doesn’t mean people will sit through a 2-hour review of his life, no matter how well written. Let’s face it, for every Brassed Off or Billy Elliott, which hits the jackpot, there are a dozen which never move beyond first base. Should Yorkshire be supporting Herriot? Of course I think it should. But, in the current climate, I am not surprised it’s not.”

In public, at least, Kirk, who lives close to the Wight memorial in Thirsk, is the soul of diplomacy, maintaining that the amateur route will eventually reap dividends.

“If we have to switch the premiere to Scotland, so be it. Alf Wight was the son of a shipyard worker and grew up in Glasgow, where he qualified from the city’s veterinary college, so there is nothing set in stone,” says Kirk.

“When you see the busloads of tourists visiting Thirsk every summer, it doesn’t take a massive amount of imagination to forecast that Herriot will go down a storm with a lot of these people. So let’s head to Scotland. Why not?”

Gibb and Kirk’s travails testify to the fact that musical drama is dying outside London and that if the only solution is to plump for a Carousel revival, concepts such as Herriot don’t stand a chance.