Melody Moore is a show advertised as 1 actor, 17 characters, 11 songs and a harp. Richard Hanna, from Ottowa, is the singular actor garbed for most of the show in the artiste’s uniform of billowy white shirt and painted on jeans. 

The major character of the 17 is Thomas Moore, born in Ireland 1779. He was a friend of poets, a traitor and a bard. Hanna has written a script that doesn’t linger and creates all sorts of fabulous minor characters. In fact some of the best parts of the performance are not when Hanna is the title role but when he is various old dames, cheeky young boys and a gaseous king. He barrels through all these characters and more at top speed, flawlessly transitioning between them.

When he is the lead character he makes good use of the oversized chair to create the illusion that he is as dwarfish as Moore. Hanna manages to contrast the hilarity of a farcical duel with a loving and heartbroken family man in a believable manner. 

Hanna develops his character from a bored law student who accidentally got famous with his erotic doodlings to a fiercely proud Irish nationalist who defames a king to his face and gets away with it. Moore had been fighting for the resistance on enemy ground through the medium of song. He employed allegory as a life-saving device. Moore’s songs are sung by Hanna, interspersed throughout the show and accompanied by the harp. Unfortunately large chunks of the songs are lost to the audience through the soundtrack being either too loud or played at the wrong time.

The audience giggled and appreciated the show but I would suggest to Hanna, from a promotional perspective alone, that he may want to reconsider apologising to an audience after a performance.

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