We’ve romped most of the way through Life With You, the title track from the Proclaimers’ seventh album, when the lead actors fade out of view and hand the stage to the musicians. Six of them come to the front with their assorted string instruments and belt out the remainder of the song. They are full-voiced and joyful.
It is a lovely moment and not just because it foregrounds Richard Reeday’s musical direction and David Shrubsole’s acoustic-led arrangements. It is also because it acknowledges how much Stephen Greenhorn’s superb 2007 musical, based on the songs of the Proclaimers, is about community. Keenly tuning in to the romantic and political vision of songwriters Craig and Charlie Reid, the playwright fashions a story that brims with ideas about nationhood, democracy and economics just as much as the awkward tensions of boy-girl relationships.
