I wasn’t going to give Arise! a star rating, it is a work in progress after all. However, having seen and enjoyed the show so much, I think it’s only fair to point out how good it is already! The self-entitled ‘Breadagogues’, storyteller Marie Louise Cochrane, musician Suzanne Houston and activist baker Andrew Whitley, have quite a production on their hands.
It’s hard to sum up. I’ll settle for ‘Musical storytelling musical review with a hint of burlesque.’ However you define Arise! it’s undoubtedly original and ambitious. Wheat (Cochrane) narrates their own journey, from an ancestral source of all things nutritionally good, and into a modern age of ultra-processed quasi-villainy. Fear not, dear reader, the show, which might be subtitled, The Redemption of Wheat, ends on a strongly upbeat note. Your sandwich is safe: though you may have to start baking if you don’t already.
Musically, Arise! doesn’t just pay lip service to a promise of ‘catchy songs’, the duration of the production is genuinely peppered with musical diversions. These are central to the narrative, mirroring the gentle, but perceptive comedy with which the trio tracks Bread’s fate. Houston and Cochrane have conspired to create a mini-concept album, and coupled with a lively, informative script, Arise! feels something like an infomercial, if made by Joyce Grenfell.
Wheat has charm as a character, and it’s a genuine pity to see her seduced and abused by society’s caprices through time. Her gradual divestment of her many aprons from wholesome brown to vapid white is a fabulous way to track the progressive loss of her nutritious outer layers in the pursuit of whiteness, and softness.
Whitley, in contrast, plays himself on stage, the resident bread egghead, ready with the science behind the dos and don’ts. He has such a calm, but passionate manner, it makes rather light work of some wordy exposition. He’s the Windows paperclip of the show, though with far more avuncular charm than Clippy. With this experience, and a little more time, his fluidity on stage will only grow.
Behind the fun and songs, is a serious message of course. Whitley, director of Bread Matters, and co-founder of Scotland the Bread, has long been on a mission to return cereal and bread production into the hands of local communities, and away from industrial ultra-processing. After learning of the nutritional price of whiter than white bread, and the continuing bare-faced cheek of industrial bakers, you may well find yourself signing up! Even that Sourdough you pay over the odds for in the supermarket? It’s probably not Sourdough at all!
Completing the trio, Houston is the show’s vital Swiss-Army Knife, accompanist, character on demand, and voice of young mothers trying to balance their non-existent time and need to feed their kids nutritious food. Here’s a hint, seeded bread doesn’t count. However, with all the pluck of an 80’s kids’ show, Arise! has a cheerful song to illustrate the relative ease of baking your own, highly nutritious bread.
However, the star of Arise! is unquestionably Cochrane, who creates Wheat as a real, fleshed-out character. Every entrance, every tune, every monologue is made with fine comedic timing and meaningful insight. She can more than hold a tune to boot, which has no doubt permitted the score to strive for more sophistication and greater integrity.
Bold, cheery, cheeky, and ambitious, Arise! is a storytelling musical review with a punchy message. You’ll never look at the bread shelf in the supermarket the same. With a little more practice and development time, this will be a show fit for festival stages far and wide. What a privilege to see its first staging at the Scottish International Storytelling Festival 2023.
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