Review | ‘The Ballad of Johnny Longstaff’ may be the sleeper hit of the fall theatre season

The Ballad of Johnny Longstaff

Written and composed by the Young’uns. Directed by Lorne Campbell. Until Nov. 27 at Harbourfront Centre, 235 Queens Quay W. harbourfrontcentre.com or 416-973-4000

“The Ballad of Johnny Longstaff,” the powerfully moving and often hilarious new production now playing at the Harbourfront Centre, may be the sleeper hit of the fall theatre season.

Deceptively simple and visually spare, with just three performers and some gorgeously rendered animated projections, the musical is about as modest as the working-class hero it sets out to portray. But it’s because of this unpretentious frame that the show triumphs, weaving stories and folk songs into a poignant narrative about a largely unknown man and a long-forgotten war.

You probably haven’t heard of Johnny Longstaff, the freedom fighter from northern England who spent his childhood begging on the streets of Stockton-on-Tees before heading off to Spain as a teenager to fight the rising tide of fascism.

But he wasn’t alone. About 4,000 British men and women chose to fight in the Spanish Civil War, in what is now a footnote in our history books, a precursor to the Second World War.

Longstaff, who died in 2000, recorded in the 1980s a series of oral histories, which are preserved at London’s Imperial War Museum. The interviews, six hours worth in all, are a trove of stories begging to be told.

Enter the Young’uns, the English folk trio comprised of Sean Cooney, David Eagle and Michael Hughes. In 2015, following one of their gigs, they were approached by a man who turned out to be Longstaff’s son, Duncan. Since the Young’uns hail from the elder Longstaff’s hometown of Stockton-on-Tees, Duncan hoped the English folk trio would agree to write a song about his father.

They did.

Soon, the song turned into a 17-song album about Longstaff’s life story, which then inspired the stage musical that is “The Ballad of Johnny Longstaff,” a co-production between the Young’uns, Northern Stage and Harbourfront Centre.

Much could have gone wrong along that journey, as the Young’uns translated these oral histories of a man they’ve never met into a 110-minute musical. Mixing folk ditties with sombre war stories sounds like a soppy and hokey recipe for disaster.

But the Young’uns, along with director Lorne Campbell, handle the material with such delicate care that not once do you question their decision to pair these tales with folk music. In fact, it all makes perfect sense and it’s hard to imagine this story being told through any other medium. After all, Longstaff was a folk hero to his generation.

I use the term “musical” liberally when describing this production. It is, more accurately, a collection of songs and spoken word arranged chronologically to recount — albeit a romanticized version of — Longstaff’s story.

The mood is casual: performers Cooney, Eagle and Sam Carter frequently break the fourth wall; they banter with the audience and among themselves.

Their songs are captivating, packed with tuneful melodies, smart (and often witty) rhymes and a whole lot of heart. The lyrics have faint echoes of Longstaff’s voice, with sections almost sounding like they’re pulled verbatim from those oral histories.

They’re brought to life impressively by Cooney, Eagle and Carter, whose rich tones blend so harmoniously when they sing a cappella. (The three sound like they’ve been singing together for decades. So it was shocking to learn on opening night that it was only Carter’s second performance with the show; the third Young’uns member, Hughes, didn’t cross the pond for this engagement.)

The star of the show, however, really is Longstaff. And it is he who narrates much of his story. For those oral histories form the backbone of the musical, expertly edited by the Young’uns so that Longstaff is almost in conversation with them and their songs. The product is so astonishing that Cooney had to remind the audience at the curtain call that the narration is, in fact, the real voice of Longstaff from those archived oral histories.

Though Campbell’s stage direction is at times static, with the performers all singing in a row, he’s smart to keep the focus on the music and the story. Accompanying the narration and music are a series of video animations (designed by Scott Turnbull and animated by Aaron Brady) that are projected on a pair of scrims on the tiered stage. They’re beautiful and at times haunting, and are reminiscent of those classic National Film Board of Canada animated shorts.

The poignancy of this production, however, lies largely in its, somewhat unfortunate, timeliness. Earlier this month, Saskatchewan native Joseph Hildebrand, 33, was killed while fighting in Ukraine as a volunteer soldier. This Toronto run is dedicated to him, the Harbourfront Centre has announced.

It’s stories like those of Hildebrand and Longstaff that remind us what fighting for freedom truly means.

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