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The Herald Scotland
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
The Lord moves in mysterious ways in this rapid fire play
Theatre 118, Glasgow Everyone has their crosses to bear in Chris Patrick's new play, in which a couple of believers meet in the sort of outdoor venue where decidedly unchristian things might happen in order to curry favour with the big guy upstairs. Our hapless pair aim to do this by way of hammer, nails, some handy DIY and a lot of faith to muffle the screams. When an angel finally does turn up to show them the way, rather than some beatific saviour bathed in a holy glow, this winged wonder is a grumpy naysayer who keeps his halo in his briefcase and is in permanent dispute with his boss. The Lord moves in mysterious ways in Colin McGowan's rapid-fire production that sees Patrick's stream of one liners go beyond what initially looks like an extended routine into a scabrous comic look at the painful extremes of blind faith. Erin Scanlan's naive disciple makes a kooky comic foil to Ross Flynn's self appointed right hand man of God, played by Flynn as a kind of ecclesiastical middle manager. McGowan himself plays Angie the Angel as the sort of fly patter merchant with an attitude problem not seen since Peter Cook played the devil in his and Dudley Moore's groovy swinging sixties take on Faust in Bedazzled. Read More: Patrick's play forms the first edition of Play of the Week, a new venture set up by the recently formed Theatre 118, who have found a home in a former office block on Osborne Street in Glasgow's city centre. This is at the behest of Outer Spaces, the innovative organisation set up to fill empty shops and offices with artistic life as makeshift studios, galleries and venues. This has enabled Theatre 118 to tap into a necessary need for cheap grassroots theatre spaces in which artists can experiment without financial risk. With a background in scratch nights, play readings and other self generated developmental initiatives, Theatre 118's move into full productions looks promising. As the Play of the Week name suggests, this inaugural season of four short plays running each Thursday to Saturday showcases work that once upon a time might have ended up on TV. This follows in a tradition forged by the likes of A Play, a Pie and a Pint's lunchtime theatre institution in that it works from the ground up. The unseen saviour in Patrick's play might not approve, but the resurrection of grassroots Scottish theatre might just start here. Hallelujah to that.
The Herald Scotland
25-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Review: The mystery of the Inquisitor and the Prisoner is compelling
Oran Mor, Glasgow 'You are us,' says the Inquisitor of Peter Arnott's play to his silent Prisoner at one point. This is a telling moment in this unspecified war of attrition that reveals the similarities as much as the differences between those in one conflict or another. Whether political, religious or generational, as the Inquisitor expounds on morality, ethics and all the contradictions at play that give us the excuse to square any circle we like in the name of whatever cause is going, for a veteran like him, this time it seems, it's also personal. Tom McGovern's Inquisitor is every inch the well-heeled establishment mandarin in Liz Carruthers' suitably elliptical production, the final lunchtime offering from A Play, a Pie and a Pint's spring and summer season. Sat in the old school splendour of designer Heather Grace Currie's set, McGovern waxes forth from his desk while his Prisoner, initially bound, but always captive, acts as a human sounding board, never giving anything away in Michael Guest's concentrated portrayal. Read More: A bold concert with a mighty juggernaut 'Charm aplenty' - Review: Goodbye Dreamland Bowlarama, Oran Mor Review: You Won't Break My Soul, Oran Mor, Glasgow Just what alliance the Prisoner appears to have betrayed is never revealed, but both men are facing the consequences of whatever actions got them here. Is the Prisoner a terrorist sympathiser infiltrating the system in order to corrupt it? Or is he merely an angry do-gooder who got in too deep? As for the Inquisitor, how did he end up where he is now? And why does he appear to be as trapped as his captive? Arnott sets up the sort of circular debate we don't see enough of on stage in an expansive probing of belief, faith and how far someone will go to get what they want. Flanked by cosmic film footage, the Inquisitor's speech is part TED talk, part confessional before the two men finally find some kind of accord beyond the silence. Just who is seeking to be released, however, no one is saying in a fascinating and compelling hour.
The Herald Scotland
18-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Review: The Haunting of Agnes Gilfrey, Oran Mor, Glasgow
⭐⭐⭐⭐ A storm is brewing over Mull in Amy Conway's new comedy thriller that forms the latest offering from A Play, a Pie and a Pint's current season of lunchtime theatre. Agnes and her American TV actor husband James have arrived late at the old house where they are having a belated honeymoon. Greeted unexpectedly by housekeeper Mrs Carlin, Agnes and James are also seeking to escape other domestic pressures. Once things start going bump in the night, however, old ghosts making their presence felt see things spiral into a nightmare. Only when Agnes confronts a few demons does the storm calm. Shades of Inside Number 9's meticulously observed pastiches of hammy horror pulp fiction TV tropes abound in Katie Slater's production of Conway's script. This is the case from the creepy portrait of the former lady of the house Constance Laird resembling real life characters, to at one point having Manasa Tagica's Jack appearing to believe he is in a reality show. Then there is the way absolutely everyone in a 1970s thriller has a high-flying job in one creative industry or another. It is there most of all, however, in Mary Gapinski's larger than life embodiment of Mrs Carlin, whose deadly patter sounds purloined from a Victorian tombstone. Read more theatre reviews from Neil Cooper: Beyond such wilfully OTT archness there is some serious stuff at play here that says much about women, autonomy and the impending tick of the biological clock that has seen the female of the species too often presented as a mad woman in the attic of one sort or another. Played out on Fraser Lappin's pitch perfect depiction of a crumbling Highland pile and co-presented with Mull's arts centre An Tobar and Mull Theatre, Conway and Slater's construction sees Gapinski, Tagica and Sarah McCardie's Agnes having tremendous fun with all this. Conway's play nevertheless reclaims old myths in a deceptively subtle fashion to put women at the centre of this new spin on gothic fiction.
The Herald Scotland
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Review: You Won't Break My Soul, Oran Mor, Glasgow
⭐⭐⭐ When Beyoncé came to Murrayfield in 2023 as part of her Renaissance tour, the bootylicious diva caused a sensation. Beyond the show itself, there was likely plenty of drama for her fan base who worship at her feet, and not just among the single ladies either. Take Jordan and Russell. The neon pink boudoir that passes for the living room of these gay best friends in JD Stewart's new play for A Play, a Pie and a Pint's lunchtime theatre season may be a shrine to their queen, but it also requires an overload of Febreze to clear the body odours that hang around. Read more: Partly responsible for these is the bit of rough trade Jordan who has just beat a hasty retreat with two stolen tickets in hand. When Russell gets home, the pair's despair at their loss sees them embark on a quest for replacements that takes them from their friend Sooz's cafe to the local cop shop that seems to be run by a refugee from the Village People. Finally, they enter a drag contest at real life Glasgow nitespot, Delmonica's, where first prize might just get them to the show. So far so camp in Laila Noble's production, in which Jamie McKillop and James Peake rise to the occasion as Jordan and Russell, who reaffirm their personal bond as they revive their olds double act on stage. Aided by Kaylah Copeland as Sooz, and with an extra special guest in the house, the inevitable floor show all this has been leading to is delivered with glamtastic abandon in a play that goes beyond its initial japes to a more serious look at friendship, staying true to oneself and the restorative powers of a life on stage for these destiny's children in waiting.
The Herald Scotland
04-06-2025
- 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.
