The Mould that Changed the World – Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Picture: Robin Mair

The Mould that Changed the World continues at the Edinburgh Academy, Edinburgh until 17 August 2022.

Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩

There’s a lot to like in this expanded version of the musical that first appeared at the Fringe in 2018. The ensemble of local NHS staff act and sing their way through a multitude of parts. Their big harmony moments are particularly strong. The professional cast also multi-tasks to provide a myriad characters essential to the story. The two principal actors, Jeremy Rose, charming and personable as Alexander Fleming, and Emily Bull, ethereal and mysterious as Rose, bring quality to the production.

Told in flashbacks, we follow Fleming’s career; from his early years in the army, to field doctor in the First World War, struggling with limited resources and poor government advice, through the discovery of the mould, which surprisingly, is quite underwhelming musically, to his knighthood, Nobel Prize and a flash-forward to a future where bacteria have built resistance to antibiotics.

The transitions are smooth and well staged by book writer and director Thomas Henderson, though it’s all quite earnest.

Two Lycra-clad dancer/acrobats with floaty sleeves, represent the bacteria and flit around anyone infected or dying; but the concept jars and seems to belong to a different production.

Many of the songs are in a kind of recitative style, lacking in melody and musical drive; and there’s much reprising.  Often, composer and lyricist Robin Hiley’s songs sit low in the actors’ voices. They all hit the notes, but the colour and tone can be out of sync with the emotion of the moment. Lyrically, it comes and goes, sometimes sharp and witty; sometimes jarring by having the accent on the wrong syllable. But Hiley can write a lyrical tune. Rose’s waltz is the musical highlight and is sung beautifully by Bull.

I imagine there’s more development planned, but the energy and commitment of the performers, including the onstage five-piece band, make this an educational and entertaining show.

Steven Wren