REVIEW: THE CHAPLAIN, Camden Fringe at Lion and Unicorn Theatre 13 – 17 August 2024

‘The key wow factor of this thrilling musical is the music itself’ ★★★★

Quality work. Awesome. Excellent. Chapeau to University of Cambridge first year’s English student Gabriel Owens who has written and composed a new musical with beautiful songs and tunes and a script that deserves to be shared to a wider audience. Set in 19th Century Victorian London, The Chaplain musical delves into the role of the prison chaplain, whose task is to cleanse the souls of condemned criminals. The chaplain is employed to provide moral support and a smooth transition from life to afterlife for those sentenced to death. Acting as a representative of absolute Christian morality, he enables and justifies the execution by the state of the criminals through ensuring that the latter receive support and keep on praying, while the state carries out the murderous act of hanging those criminals. Some of the crimes were serious, and some were petty. The practice of state execution continued well into the 1960s in the UK with the last execution by hanging taking place in August 1964.

Luke Muschialli, an actor-singer also a cello virtuoso performs quite convincingly as the conflicted prison chaplain. He has been introduced to three convicts who he must persuade into confession. Great characterisation by Neelan Nee of Edie, a poor young woman living in urban slums, who is imprisoned for prostitution and yet refuses to admit guilt. Brilliant acting and singing performance by Wilf Offord as the character John, a coachman working for a wealthy family, who is imprisoned for killing his employer after John’s love interest was taken away from him. Emotive performance by Sanaer Madden as Jennie, a young girl trying to feed her starving family, only to be imprisoned for stealing. Lurking in the darkness of the dirty prison cell, is also a mysterious ghostly woman, enigmatically played by Lexie Graham who confronts the self-righteous chaplain about his own sinful past. Jacob Coughlan acting as the prison cell warden and multi-roling in other characters bring a foreboding persona to the plot.

This Cambridge University Musical Theatre Society (CUMTS) musical production initially intended to expose the injustice of today and the hypocrisy behind the use and abuse of power carried out by the religious system whereby the audience is invited to question theological rigid practices. It hopes to be a story of love and hate, charity and faith and it can well be said that the production has achieved good success under the direction of Catherine McLean. The key wow factor of this thrilling musical is the music itself. With a musical tone that at times reminds me of tunes from Les Miserables, the live keyboard playing by the extremely talented writer-composer Gabriel Owens, offers a highly entertaining classy accompaniment to the performance by the cast of actors-musicians. Whereas some of the acting may not be entirely consistent throughout the run of the 60 minutes performance, the vocal delivery of the songs is generally at a high standard. A very promising future for all involved in this musical production highlighting raw talents.

THE CHAPLAIN

Cambridge University Musical Theatre Society

Writer and Composer: Gabriel Owens

Director: Catherine McLean (assisted by Em Sparkes)