"Home" by Ethan Lee and Amber India Frost

The Nottingham New Theatre

This is a new musical which is heading its' way to the Edinburgh Fringe, and this is the only public performance of this musical, so I feel extremely lucky to have been asked to pop along to see it. June is Pride month so this musical also fits in well with this event.

A bunch of young people meet in a group therapy session who live for love without counting the cost; each character opens up about their past struggles surrounding relationships with others, whether this is with ex-partners, friends or family.

"Home" tells the story of lost souls yearning for a soulmate and attempting to better themselves to be more loveable, but as the show goes on, the characters learn to love themselves instead and discover their soulmates are the friends that they meet along the journey. They also get to realise and understand what love really means to them.

The word "Home" can mean several things, as highlighted within this play, including "home" is where you feel the most comfortable, or the most loved.

Sophie Lagden (Ophelia) has a gorgeous voice, and as Ophelia is the first to draw Elwyn out of his shell, which is where we start to discover the characters and the reasons why they are in the therapy session. Ophelia is a separate entity and is one of the people within the session who starts alone and ends on her own, but we het the feeling that she no longer feels alone.

Ethan Lee (Elwyn) plays a character who feels that he is not loved or understood by his parents for being gay, something that should not make any difference to any parent, and seems to be looking for affirmation. Ophelia understands this and Elwyn feels comfortable opening up to her.

We also see Ethan's choreographed contemporary dance, which fits with the song, sung by Juno, so well. Anyone who has followed Ethan's music career will already know of his talents in that area, and these songs are so heartfelt, and really tell the story, and also seem so personal.

Riley Halls Backler (Juno) plays a character who, at first glance really doesn't want to be at the therapy session and is only there because his parents think it will help. What we don't know though is if the reason why his parents have advised him to be there is the real reason why he is there. Juno thinks the sessions are, in his words "bullshit", but Elwyn discovers, by talking to Juno on the next session that Juno is bisexual, and that he has been unable to tell anyone this, afraid that he will not be seen, or accepted for who he is. That confession opens up his feelings, which other members of the group acknowledge.

Craig Youngmn (Noah) plays the character who first picks up on this new friendship between Juno and Elwyn. Noah is quite reserved at the start but admits to Luna that he enjoys making friends and can talk for hours, with the right person. We also see Noah come out of his shell throughout the sessions.

Megan Smith (Luna). Luna starts off as another shy character; a character who seems to find difficulty in making friends and connecting with others. But she just has to find the right one, and she does, which makes a second pairing from the sessions. It was really nice to see that development of Luna, almost like watching a tightly layered rose bud blossoming into a gorgeous proud rose.

And talking of roses, Vicky Parker (Rose) plays the woman who brings Luna into flower. Starting off with invites to watch the moon and walks, and even inviting Luna to her brother's birthday party, but with Luna's shyness, she is uncomfortable around crowds of people she didn't know, so the slow approach from Rose eventually worked.

Ellen Steel (Therapist) presided over the group, eventually bringing them all out of their shells, showing that these therapy sessions can work and the more you put in, the more you get out of them. And the secret is to talk to people, a message that came over so well throughout this musical.

The songs, as I said before are all new and written by Ethan and Amber. Listening to the lyrics you really do get a lot out of them and, as I also said, come across as very personal and heartfelt.

Something that also made the music seem even more special was that the only accompaniment was from cello (Amber India Frost) and keyboards (AJ Hill). Keeping the music stripped back really brought out the meaning and feelings of the lyrics.

I loved the arrangements and the various group harmonies, all of which were reminiscent of one of my favourite composers, Jason Robert Brown.

My only, and it's not really a criticism more of an advisory note, is that sometimes, more projection was needed with the narrative, but this could have been nerves, and with an audience, sometimes power of the speaking voice can be lost after hitting the first few rows. Apart from that note, I loved the musical. I loved the positivity of the message it gave out. This message is the kind of thing that can help anyone who can relate to any of the characters in "Home".

The running time was only around an hour but I honestly thought that the time could be extended with more script and songs, and still be as entertaining and informative as it already is. This musical has legs, and I think it's something that would go down a storm in The Fringe.

The Nottingham New Theatre is so good at highlighting and encouraging the talent they already have, and this is just more proof of that fact. And it was also lovely to be up there again after three years.