King’s Theatre, Glasgow Five stars The sirens that usher in this latest revival of Stephen Daldry’s epoch making reimagining of J.B. Priestley’s drawing room skewering of the monied classes speaks volumes about what follows. Written at the end of the Second World War and set two years before the First, Priestley’s play took the whodunnit formula and gave it a social conscience that Daldry’s production explodes into view. At the heart of this is Inspector Goole, who gatecrashes the fancy dinner held by factory owning industrialist Arthur Birling to celebrate his daughter Sheila’s forthcoming nuptials with the equally well-heeled Gerald Croft. Birling’s feckless dipso son Eric is also in attendance, with queen bee Sybil set to make her entrance. Goole arrives with news of the death of a young woman called Eva Smith. This may have been by her own hand, but as her assorted circumstances are laid bare, the Birlings appear to be complicit in her demise en masse. It ...
Tron Theatre, Glasgow Four stars Teenage Flo has been brought before her social worker and a policeman to find out why she hit her teacher. Flo is in care, her best friend has died, and she writes stories to help her survive. When a mysterious figure wielding a guitar appears and encourages Flo to take charge of her life and live it on her own terms, the sanctuary she finds when she runs away isn’t always what it seems. As opening gambits go, one might be forgiven for presuming Robbie Gordon and Jack Nurse’s new play for their Wonder Fools company to be an exercise in everyday social realism. Instead, while Flo’s traumas are explored, Nurse’s production takes a more fantastical turn, as Flo ends up at a kind of fantasy dinner party with historical figures after stumbling on a Shangri-la of sorts in the hills of Dumfries and Galloway. The fair on Kelton Hill is occupied by serial killer William Hare, vainglorious national bard Robert Burns, and feminist f...