Warning: contains spoilers
I'm sat eagerly awaiting the curtain-up of a musical telling a tale of the redemption of a young man living in France, and of a destitute single mother. No, this is not Les Misérables.
You might not be terribly familiar with the musical Martin Guerre. I certainly wasn't until this new run at London's Old Vic, from soon-departing Artistic Director Matthew Warchus. The original Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil creation was adapted heavily under Cameron Mackintosh's watchful eye, resulting in a 1996 production that was quite different to their original intentions. A second rewrite midway through in 1997 took the production even further from Schönberg and Boublil's original concept. In the time since, save for a handful of smaller productions, this musical has been left on the shelf. Until now. With the rights returned to the writers during the pandemic, and new musical numbers added, Warchus has brought this play back to life, in a form truer to the genesis of their idea.
We're only a few minutes in. A twenty-one-strong cast is building the 16th-century rural atmosphere with Adam Pearce at its centre, portraying a religious leader, backed up by a band of six musicians and a plainsong-infused folk-style score. I'm not really sure what I'm watching, and I'm slightly concerned I'm not going to enjoy it. We're rushing through the eponymous character's unhappy betrothal to Bertrande at a very young age (Dan Hand and Bethan Louise Honer performing these early-life-stage parts), before he's sent off to war. It's apparent early on that these are crucial narratives, but I'm left wondering if I'm going to develop an attachment to these characters and care what happens to them.