Latest news with #APlay
The Herald Scotland
8 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Review: Meme Girls, Oran Mor: When a craving for fame goes wrong
Òran Mór, Glasgow Fame, as every wannabe pop star knows, costs. In the social media age, where everyone is famous for a lot less than five minutes, you can go viral as the next big thing one minute and be last year's spam within seconds. This is the reality the two young women in Andy McGregor's bite-size new musical are forced to square up to for this latest edition of A Play, a Pie and a Pint's ongoing lunchtime theatre season. Jade is a serious budding songwriter with an introspective air who pens power ballads in her bedroom, and would prefer to blend into the background before heading off to university. Clare, on the other hand, may have the voice of an angel, but she's the life and soul of any party until she crashes. When an ill-timed incident is captured on Tik Tok, she becomes a star for all the wrong reasons. Not that this bothers her, mind you, as her craving for the spotlight makes for a lucrative if grotesque way to make the big time. Jade, meanwhile, returns to her keyboard before the pair are thrown together again for one last number. Read more McGregor's play is a meticulously observed study of vaulting ambition, and how untutored talent can be warped by a mix of vanity, desperation and the addictive allure of interacting with strangers. Framed as each girl confesses all for a warts and all documentary on Fraser Lappin's pink boudoir of a set, McGregor's dialogue is delivered with fine tuned interplay by Julia Murray as Jade and Yana Harris as Clare. Both actors spar as beautifully as they duet on McGregor's handful of songs that drive the story. The technology may be different here, but the play's look at the fickle hand of fame and the disposability of pop bubblegum is as timelessly familiar as its depiction of the power plays between female friends. It is this latter attribute that gives the play its charm in a work where pop doesn't quite eat itself, but it comes pretty close.
Glasgow Times
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Glasgow Times
Musical play about 'the rise of influencers' on way to Glasgow
The question is at the heart of Andy McGregor's new musical, Meme Girls, which delves into the world of fame and friendship. It's coming to Glasgow's Oran Mor in June as part of lunchtime theatre series A Play, A Pie and A Pint. 'I wanted to explore two things that fascinate me,' says Andy. 'Firstly, the rise of online influencers – this new breed of celebrity who often don't have the 'traditional' talents we associate with fame, and I'm keen to unpack what captivates us about them. 'Secondly, I'm interested in the intensity of friendships and their breakups. Losing a friend can be as devastating as any romantic split, and that sense of loss can linger forever if it's never mended.' (Image: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan) Meme Girls is the story of Jade and Clare, who have been the best of pals since primary school while chasing their seemingly impossible dream of becoming successful musicians. Then, in a drunken stupor, Clare is caught 'being a daftie' on camera and quickly becomes a viral hit. Fame, not fortune, follows and the girls' relationship is pushed to its limits. Yana Harris and Julia Murray star as Jade and Clare, in a production which will feature brand new original songs. Andy McGregor (Image: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan) This is Andy's 10th show for A Play, A Pie and A Pint. 'I love making shows at PPP, and I believe Meme Girls delivers exactly what I enjoy in theatre, and what I know the Oran Mor audience appreciates: fantastically talented performers, a generous dose of laughs, perhaps a few tears, and an intriguing story that, for a wee magical hour, completely absorbs you in a world you never knew existed,' he says. READ NEXT: 'Townhead was obliterated': Billy Elliot star on his Glasgow roots 'We're so lucky to have the Citz': Free drama lessons as Glasgow theatre re-opens Hit Scottish TV comedy returns as musical 30 years on 'It's a place that has been key to my career. 'Highlights for me are having my show about Irn Bru and chips, called Spuds, voted back as an audience favourite and having my one-man musical set in Millport - Crocodile Rock - appear on the BBC.' Andy adds: 'PPP takes chances on Scottish artists that other theatres don't seem as willing to take. 'It trusts in us to follow our own artistic noses and put something on stage that is uniquely us, and I thank them very much for those opportunities.' Meme Girls runs from June 2 to 7.
The Herald Scotland
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Review: Sunshine Spa, Òran Mór: Like an old-school Play for Today
Òran Mór, Glasgow Neil Cooper Three stars The heat is on when Iain meets Zainab after going in search of a place to cool down. Being downtown Marrakesh, however, things don't quite turn out as planned. Iain is a gay man from Manchester who turns up at Zainab's spa. Given the strict rules in Morocco regarding the rights of women, the two shouldn't even be in the same room, let alone be preparing a very special massage. With Iain wheelchair bound and unable to bear to be touched, even that comes with complications. With protests on the streets outside, Zainab is as alive to the power of dissent as Iain is, and once both let their guard down they find a surprising amount of common ground. Simon Jay's new play - the latest in this season's A Play, a Pie and a Pint series of lunchtime plays - is a warm and human take on everyday solidarity across cultures where differences might normally turn into something toxic. Read more Jay's script may have a polemical heart, but the way his characters make a connection in the oddest of circumstances is a neat sleight of hand that endears you to their respective causes rather than leaving the theatre feeling harangued. Presented in association with the Glasgow based Birds of Paradise company, Jay's play is the result of a callout to develop work with a disabled playwright. The result, directed by BOP's artistic director Robert Softley Gale, sees Stephen Smith Taylor make his professional debut as Iain opposite Fatima Jawara as Zainab. As they spar, the duo show off a text that feels rooted in old school plays for today with potential for a sit-com spin-off. A word as well for designer Heather Grace Currie's convincingly realised spa set, which looks like an oasis of calm in a play that may be set several thousand miles away, but which feels familiarly close to home.
The Herald Scotland
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
'Charm aplenty' - Review: Goodbye Dreamland Bowlarama, Oran Mor
Oran Mor, Glasgow Neil Cooper Three stars Life is one great big musical for Charlie, the young woman at the heart of Taylor Dyson and Calum Kelly's lo-fi musical, the latest lunchtime treat as part of Oran Mor's current A Play, a Pie and a Pint season of bite-size theatre. For Charlie, alas, where once all she had to think about was the job she loved in the Inverness bowling alley that gives the play its title, a run of everyday tragedies suggests any kind of happy ending is a long way off yet. When she loses pretty much everything except her brother Ross overnight, Charlie does a runner to Dundee, where her granddad's long lost brother may or may not be hiding behind sunglasses and a Stetson. Missing presumed lost by Ross, Charlie's penchant for attracting disaster causes him to fear the worst. Charlie, however, is merely changing lanes as she finds a new song to sing. There is charm aplenty in Dyson and Kelly's quirky tale of an innocent abroad whose world is turned upside down before she finds her feet again. Read more The fact that the world Charlie inhabits is coloured with the fantastical largesse of cheap pleasure palaces and country and western bars gives Beth Morton's production a sense of low rent surrealism. This is heightened by Fraser Lappin's set, which looks like it could be a backdrop for an out of season end of the pier cabaret night. If this were a film, it would come in vivid Eastman colour with a cast sporting vintage apparel. As it is, Dyson's turn as a kooky but vulnerable Charlie takes her on an off-kilter rites of passage, while Ewan Somers' doubling up as Ross and assorted grandparents and workmates lends to the show's overriding sense of oddness. Co-presented with Dumfries & Galloway Arts Festival, and with Dyson and Kelly's creative partnership as the Dundee based Elfie Picket Theatre joining forces here, the result is an archly realised getting of wisdom containing more substance than its surface slightness suggests.
The Herald Scotland
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
'Most blasphemous play in history': Review: Mistero Buffo, Glasgow
When the late Robbie Coltrane took to the stage in 1990 with Joseph Farrell's translation, Rame and Fo's comic theological riffs were as damning of assorted establishments as ever. Three and a half decades on again, as Farrell's new Scots version is brought to turbo charged life in this week's edition of A Play, a Pie and a Pint's latest season of lunchtime theatre, not much has changed. Robbie Coltrane in Mistero Buffo (Image: free) Nevertheless, Lawrence Boothman's rude intrusion as an anarchist on the run from the rioting outside the theatre he is seeking sanctuary in is a motor-mouthed tour de force that might still give the Vatican cause for concern if they weren't a bit busy just now. The stage area of Ben Pritchard's production - as in the round as Oran Mor's interior will allow - is regally decked out on designer Heather Grace Currie's set with a crown and a skull for what looks like a traditional performance of Hamlet. As Boothman's thoroughly modern frontline protestor finds his spotlight, he embarks on a rapid fire series of bite-size monologues that recall Italian cinema's one time vogue for themed short story compendiums as much as a wildly camp stand up comedy take on bible studies. Read more As Boothman embodies the spirit of the Giullare – the funny guy holding court – with shape shifting glee, shades of Monty Python's Life of Brian abound in his larger than life portraits of the rabble in this people's eye view of history, co-presented with Ayr Gaiety in association with the Italian Institute of Culture in Edinburgh. A particular standout of Boothman's routine is the Jesus fanboy trying to get his idol's attention as the Messiah raises Lazarus from the dead in a kind of sideshow spectacle. Also in the mix is a bad Pope Boniface doing his very worst in furious fashion. This all comes to an abrupt end when the forces of the law catch up with our hero, by which time he has exposed their masters' inherent ridiculousness in a breathless piece of serious fun.
