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Passing Places

Pitlochry Festival Theatre
Stephen Greenhorn’s popular playwriting sensibilities were carved out a long time before he created TV soap River City and his more recent Proclaimers jukebox musical, Sunshine On Leith. This 1997 commercial breakthrough concerning a pair of small-town likely lads flight north in search of enlightenment has in fact become part of the contemporary canon.

It’s easy to see why from Ken Alexander’s new main stage production, played out on Charles Cusick Smith’s breezeblock styled set resembling the sort of 1970s public art every Scottish new town was fobbed off with. While modelling itself as a road movie for the stage, what Greenhorn has actually written over the course of the play’s 50-odd scenelets is a Bill Forsyth style piece of feel-good wisdom that wouldn’t look out of place during Sunday night’s sedatively inclined TV schedules.

This comes complete here with an anachronistic Jock-lite incidental soundtrack, as restless natives Alex and Brian head for the hills with a stolen surfboard in tow, Alex’s psychotic boss Binks on their tail. Hooking up with assorted travellers and free spirits, the getaway turns into a Zen pilgrimage, both for naturally inquisitive pub quiz geek Brian as well as Alex’s more familiar macho side.

It’s a charmingly throwaway affair that never over-eggs the play’s home-spun depths. Callum O’Neill and Steven Rae make for an appealingly ordinary pair of desperados, with Joanne Cummins’ Mirren opening up the runaway boys’ worlds. Martyn James’ Binks is a world apart from James’ normal bumblers, though the show is completely stolen by the assorted wigs sported by Greg Powrie’s role-call of wise-owl hippy types. Never did a haircut seem like such a good idea.

The Herald, July 10th 2007

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