For Rob Shaw-Smith, writer-director of Aris Theatre’s new family musical The Legend of Finn McCool, onstage at the Academy Theatre in Hapeville from June 16-25, the project is a literal giant undertaking.
Based upon an Irish legend explaining the creation of the Giant’s Causeway — a geographic natural wonder made of 40,000 interlocking basalt columns in Northern Ireland — Finn McCool is a hero who ventures abroad to “ruckus” with a Scottish giant named Bendandonner, Shaw-Smith said.
Problems arise for our hero when the giant follows him home to Ireland.
“Every child in Ireland knows the story of Finn McCool and how the Giant’s Causeway came to be built,” Shaw-Smith said.
The playwright, who serves as the board chair for Aris, has been workshopping the script for nearly a decade. It is the troupe’s first musical, and it stars Zac Phelps as the hero and Jordan Mitchell as the giant.
Shaw-Smith aimed to assure the show would entertain all audiences, and he wrote some incredibly challenging music. Rivka Levin, who plays Finn McCool’s resourceful, clever wife Oona, is a trained singer and actress who has performed regularly at Shakespeare Tavern and the Georgia Renaissance Festival.
“Robert has written some marvelously complex music,” Levin said. “And where usually I’m on melody because I’m a soprano, Oona was written for the mezzo soprano line. So I’m working in a register that I don’t usually work in. I’m filling out the chord in a way that I don’t usually get to do. I’m in a different place in the melodic line. I’ve gotten to pull on my big girl pants and really buckle down with this music.”
Shaw-Smith said he began writing the work with a partner who had to leave the project early, but that partner encouraged him to have the confidence to compose the music himself.
“Over 18 months, I went from writing a single melody line to writing five-part harmonies with a band of five instruments,” he said. “I’ve never been in the zone like that before in my life. It was really an amazing experience, and it was totally internal. I couldn’t share it with anyone. But to go into that space where I was creating all that music was profound for me.”
He now enjoys watching the Finn McCool cast bring the songs to life.
“When these ladies and the two guys are belting it out, I can’t stop myself from crying,” he said. “It’s amazing to see.”
For Elizabeth Hammontree, who is playing Erin the Druid, this is her first musical. She said the singing and dancing is intimidating, yet Shaw-Smith said her voice is lovely for Celtic singing.
“I’m not a very good singer, but I can certainly sing Elizabeth’s praises,” the writer-director said. “What Elizabeth brings is a beautiful, pure voice. What Elizabeth brings is this incredibly dry sense of humor, and she makes our Druid a very sassy individual.”
Faina Khibkin, who last performed onstage with Aris in Ulysses last year, said returning to singing for Finn McCool was a challenge. Music director Olivia Ivey, a jazz singer and music teacher, worked with her for a month retraining
her voice for the performance.
“I feel like we’ve done a lot of great work,” Khibkin said. “This is a really, really dedicated group, and what we have is going to be amazing. This is a magical show, and I love it.”
Much of the humor in Finn McCool comes from broad physical comedy, yet
there are also keen references and wit throughout the script, including poetry jokes involving William Carlos Williams. Shaw-Smith also included a lot of self-mocking jokes regarding the regions where the story is set.
“I’ve managed to write something that makes fun of sense-of-nationhood, of Scottish, Irish and English particularly,” he said. “As an Englishman, I love to send up the English and their colonial pomposity. I’ve really leaned into that. The British consul, I’m hoping, will come and see it. The Irish consul will come and see it. I’m going to find their reactions delicious.”
Aris’ mission is to bring shows that celebrate Irish, Scottish, Welsh and English culture to Atlanta. The troupe has staged shows at several locations throughout the metro area since it was founded in June 2013 and bringing Finn McCool to Hapeville continues that mission.
“People across the city need to experience this culture,” Shaw-Smith said. “It’s part of our mission to bring that culture to parts of town that might not ordinarily expect to see it.”
::
Benjamin Carr, a member of the American Theatre Critics Association, is an arts journalist and critic who has contributed to ArtsATL since 2019. His plays have been produced at The Vineyard Theatre in Manhattan, as part of the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival, and the Center for Puppetry Arts. His novel Impacted was published by The Story Plant in 2021.
