Goodbye Barcelona review, The Arcola

Watching Goodbye Barcelona at the Arcola is like watching an octopus being squeezed into a straitjacket: it constantly demands more space, more set, more strings, more breadth, more light and shade than is possible on that tiny stage. A new musical, it bursts with warm characters, lovely tunes and more promise than it can deliver, yet delivers plenty.

Spanish fly

It is 1936. In Stepney, Sammy Abramovicz, high on the excitement of chasing the Black Shirts from Cable Street, announces he's joining the International Brigade and going to Spain to fight Franco's fascists - cue a first half of witty, didactic songs providing a full history of the Spanish Civil War. It's all a bit of an eye-opener at a time when protest centres on  tents and placards. Down on The Ramblas, Sammy gets to know the disparate group of idealists with whom he will spend the next three years and loses his heart to a local girl who's struggling to save her sick sister.  

Love and war compete as Sammy's mother follows him, finding love with an anarchist while working as a field nurse. Her story is an unneeded diversion in Judith Johnson and K S Lewkowitz's musical, but provides opportunity for humour. There is some terrific singing. Special mentions are Mark Meadows - fresh out of Betty Blue Eyes - as Jack, and Tom Gill as Sammy. 

In conclusion:  A good night out with the potential to be much more in a bigger space. This spare, episodic, production with on-off lighting and the barest of sets denies the story the oxygen it needs to develop, and be developed, organically.

References
Arcola Theatre, tickets
Michael Billington review in The Guardian