Book of Mormon Aberdeen Review

Book of Mormon Aberdeen Review – A Childfree Night Out! Tickets from 2020 were finally used to see The Book of Mormon at His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen, and this is what made it worth the wait. There was a standing ovation in Aberdeen – Aberdeen!!! We never show our emotions 🙂

[The show runs in Aberdeen till 4 June, and hits Edinburgh in September.]

All Singing & Dancing – The Book of Mormon Aberdeen Review

From the get go, and the opening number ‘Hello!’, this show is a whirl of high energy performance brought to you by the same anarchic minds that created South Park and Avenue Q. It’s fun and lively, but no topic is off limits and the cast is merrily singing along to hugely unexpected ‘offensive’ themes, often swearing as they go. But nothing is mindless inanity – just like South Park, there’s so much truth, questioning, intelligence and human warmth behind the songs. For example, in one song the actors sing that if you’re offended by the words, try living in their country and walking a day in their shoes – being offended can be a very comfortable and privileged position to occupy.

Themes – The Book of Mormon Aberdeen Review

Nothing is off the table. This show explores and/or references religion, AIDS, racism, poverty, homophobia, paedophilia, superstition, cultural appropriation, male rape, FGM and more.

Men – The Book of Mormon Aberdeen Review

The South Park creators are known for exploring the minds of young men and The Book of Mormon is no different. The mormon cast is basically a line up of white men who are narcissistic, indoctrinated, and so entitled they head off to the four corners of the world with a sweeping naivety and arrogance, yet riddled with insecurity. The musical brilliantly captures how white western people sweep in to ‘help’ others, but on their own terms only. The alpha male, Elder Price (played by Robert Colvin) sums up that he views himself as one of life’s default winners in the song ‘You and Me (But Mostly Me)’.

But as the show progresses you see how little wiggle room there is for guys like this to be themselves, communicate, admit to being emotionally damaged or to being different. The song ‘Turn It Off’, so funny, yet so tragic and poignant, allows the elders  to reveal the emotions they switch off and compartmentalise, from domestic abuse and grief, to guilt and repressed homosexuality. So you start to warm to these poor souls, who have to find an avenue for their suffering, find an ideology or a community to take them in. But just as you feel a bit sorry for these men, they sing ‘I Am Africa’, totally pushing actual Africans out of the picture for their own validation. They make it all about them – appropriation and colonialism in one cute song! Meanwhile the male war lords are animals, and there’s no shying away from that.

Cast

Elder Cunningham is the twerking, flossing, shimmying underdog hero of the entire show. It’s a joy to watch Conner Peirson bring this character so much energy, humour and charm. His line, ‘Nicola Sturgeon’, no doubt for a Scottish audience, stole the show.

Jordan Lee Davies, who plays the repressed Elder McKinley, is another highlight. Every movement he made, each facial expression he pulled got across this wonderfully confused and engaging character. Johnathan Tweedie‘s Cartman-esque portrayal of Jesus tickled me.  Aviva Tulley‘s singing, playing the role of Nabulungi, was beautiful, although the character itself was relatively vanilla compared to the others. The ensemble cast will rock your world.

Booking.com

Conclusion & Details

Fabulous. Go, book it, book it now. Tickets and more Aberdeen info is available here. For Edinburgh/English dates and booking please click here. For more things to do in Aberdeen explore this post from a local.

p.s. And if you disagree with me and find the show problematic and offensive, that’s cool too, write your own review to that effect because the more voices the better.

All images courtesy of Paul Coltas. Scots2Travel received press reviews tickets to facilitate this review. If you found this guide helped you plan a break then please consider subscribing here or buy us a coffee to support our work that’s provided absolutely free. Please join the conversation on Facebook, or check out the bonny photos on Instagram. For any queries or opportunities please email scots2travel@hotmail.com. Content and images copyright of Scots2Travel.