Dumbstruck

With the help of an inordinately large saxophone, a drum box, guitars and some ukuleles, band-cum-theatre company Fine Chisel create the sounds of the sea with incredible dexterity. This isn’t just waves hitting shores – that would be easy – this is the sound of the deep, with every current, bubble and whale echo.

Suffice it to say, this five-piece troupe are excellent musicians, and ‘Dumbstruck’ is infused with music – but not just the watery kind. There’s rock, jazz, folk and ballads, all played to accompany the tale of scientist Ted Tomkins – lonely on an Alaskan island – and how he loved and lost.

As a radio and communications scientist, Ted listens to the call of whales from his isolated research station. After hearing a whale call much louder and deeper than any other, Ted begins to talk to the unique cetacean beast (and so to us) via a series of submerged microphones. We hear about his past – Fiona, his bright student who created a pirate radio station in a cave, of his sabotage of her project and his aborted attempts to express some kind of affection for her.

Though it’s delivered with a heap of magic, infectious energy and some truly transporting sounds, the story drags a little and the ending is disappointing – the narrative’s flotsam and jetsam are left frustratingly scattered. Still, the ensemble cast are excellent, moving between music, acting and dance seamlessly and even with strands of story left untied, it’s hard not to get roped in.