What Girls Are Made Of

This particular ‘girl’ is Cora Bissett, the writer and lead performer in an autobiographical tale that rises way above predictable.  It’s a pretty fabulous, foot-tapping, laughter and tears, rock’n’roll music-theatre show from Scotland.  What enlivens what could have been a meteoric-rise-to-fame-and-plunge-back-to-obscurity tale are, first, the specificity of detail of little Cora’s childhood – especially her Mam and Dad - and all the characters she meets along the way to fame. 

Second, there are the four fabulous actor-musicians, including the immediately engaging, indeed loveable Ms Bissett herself.  They create all those characters – which is astonishing because gender or physically appropriate doesn’t matter and yet they put them all before us, and they are very funny and/or very sad – or posh or camp or nasty or evil – as the story requires, public and private, its rises and its falls.    

There’s Emma Smith on percussion.  She only joined the show two weeks ago but is already arresting and just about perfect as a drummer and also as Cora’s school and teen friends.  There’s string bean Simon Donaldson (who plays many characters – his only prop a pair of glasses - but most importantly Dad) on lead guitar.  There’s the burly, bearded Harry Ward (who plays a variety of men but also Mam!) on bass. 

But as producer Margaret-Anne O’Donnell told us (we discovered we were in the same booth at the Famous Spiegeltent) the cast are not musicians who can act; they are actors who are also musicians.  Which is, in this show, essential.  But they’re way better than merely plausible.  The make-up of the ensemble is a tribute not just to the cast but also to Ms O’Donnell and director Orla O’Loughlin for putting them together in what is such a tight, precise and detailed show with an energy that never flags.

The story is based on Cora’s diaries.  Looking at them again, she wondered, ‘Is there a show in this?’  There is.  It begins around 1992, in Fyfe, a Scottish backwater, where schoolgirl Cora, who’s already picked Patti Smith as her aspiration and role model, sees a newspaper ad: Band Seeks Singer.  The ‘band’ takes some persuading, but Cora, only seventeen, is in, and the band becomes ‘Darlingheart’ – and they’re a smash.  Soon they’ve got a manager (oh-oh), a record deal and they’re touring with top of the bill bands like Radiohead and Blur. 

And these ‘actors who are also musicians’ create the sound of Cora’s idols – Patti and PJ and Dolly – and Darlingheart and the characters and sound of all the bands they tour with – plus the roadies and the manager and the record execs – and Mam and Dad, who are always there …  Cora, naïve, trusting, dazed and confused, so to speak, rides the wave.  They’re famous, they’re rich, she’s living her dream… 

Now, twenty-five years later, here’s Cora telling us her story of her life and her ‘rock’n’roll odyssey’.  Excuse that cliché, but as remarked, What Girls Are Made Of escapes cliché.  It’s a cautionary tale that’s funny and very moving; there are highs and lows.  There’s the roar of the crowd and the glare of the lights, and there are the most intimate moments of family, of friendship, of time passing and hopes dashed…  This is a great show with some great music – tributes and all – and a story that holds all the way. 

Michael Brindley

Photographs: Mihaela Bodlovic