Skip to main content

Low Pay? Don't Pay!


Tron Theatre, Glasgow
Four Stars

Once upon a time, it felt like Dario Fo's anti-capitalist classic was common fare on Scotland’s stages in every sense. The 1970s sex comedy styled soundtrack that opens Johnny McKnight's new take on the play might suggest a retro style revisitation, but in truth, McKnight's pop culture peppered update of Joseph Farrell's translation couldn't be more of the moment.

It's not just the everyday thrill of looting the local supermarket that makes Julie Wilson Nimmo's Toni and Sally Reid's Maggie such a vitally gallus double act in Rosalind Sydney's production for Glasgow Life in association with the Tron as part of the theatre's Mayfesto season. Nor is it the street-smart references to everyone from Ally McCoist to Judy Murray as Toni and Maggie attempt to hide their booty from their seemingly more conformist men-folk. 

For all the run-around of Toni and Maggie’s increasingly desperate measures to try and keep their born-again barricade-jumping on the down-low in the face of Itxaso Moreno’s comedy coppers, ultimately it’s the anarchic joie de vivre in standing up to power that carries the play. We might never get to see the rioting on the streets going on beyond Jessica Brettle’s living room set, but as it intermittently lights up like a quiz show, the infectiousness of collective action and its aphrodisiac thrill is clear.

Despite the fun and games of the comic interplay, both between Reid and Wilson Nimmo, and Gavin Jon Wright and Thierry Mabonga as their drippy spouses, Gio and Louis, Sydney’s take on the play is less manic than some might expect. This less cartoon-like approach works in the play’s favour, lending it a power that is sometimes over-ridden by pure knockabout. As Wilson Nimmo’s call to arms at the end of the play make clear, however, the revolutionary beast, once woken at grassroots level, is unlikely to put up with being talked down to anymore.

The Herald, May 7th 2019

ends





Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Ron Butlin - The Sound of My Voice

When Ron Butlin saw a man who’d just asked him the time throw himself under a train on the Paris Metro, it was a turning point in how his 1987 novel, The Sound Of My Voice, would turn out. Twenty years on, Butlin’s tale of suburban family man Morris Magellan’s existential crisis and his subsequent slide into alcoholism is regarded as a lost classic. Prime material, then, for the very intimate stage adaptation which opens in the Citizens Theatre’s tiny Stalls Studio tonight. “I had this friend in London who was an alcoholic,” Butlin recalls. “He would go off to work in the civil service in the morning looking absolutely immaculate. Then at night we’d meet, and he’s get mega-blootered, then go home and continue drinking and end up in a really bad state. I remember staying over one night, and he’d emerge from his room looking immaculate again. There was this huge contrast between what was going on outside and what was going on inside.” We’re sitting in a café on Edinburgh’s south sid

Losing Touch With My Mind - Psychedelia in Britain 1986-1990

DISC 1 1. THE STONE ROSES   -  Don’t Stop 2. SPACEMEN 3   -  Losing Touch With My Mind (Demo) 3. THE MODERN ART   -  Mind Train 4. 14 ICED BEARS   -  Mother Sleep 5. RED CHAIR FADEAWAY  -  Myra 6. BIFF BANG POW!   -  Five Minutes In The Life Of Greenwood Goulding 7. THE STAIRS  -  I Remember A Day 8. THE PRISONERS  -  In From The Cold 9. THE TELESCOPES   -  Everso 10. THE SEERS   -  Psych Out 11. MAGIC MUSHROOM BAND  -  You Can Be My L-S-D 12. THE HONEY SMUGGLERS  - Smokey Ice-Cream 13. THE MOONFLOWERS  -  We Dig Your Earth 14. THE SUGAR BATTLE   -  Colliding Minds 15. GOL GAPPAS   -  Albert Parker 16. PAUL ROLAND  -  In The Opium Den 17. THE THANES  -  Days Go Slowly By 18. THEE HYPNOTICS   -  Justice In Freedom (12" Version) 1. THE STONE ROSES    Don’t Stop ( Silvertone   ORE   1989) The trip didn’t quite start here for what sounds like Waterfall played backwards on The Stone Roses’ era-defining eponymous debut album, but it sounds

Big Gold Dreams – A Story of Scottish Independent Music 1977-1989

Disc 1 1. THE REZILLOS (My Baby Does) Good Sculptures (12/77)  2. THE EXILE Hooked On You (8/77) 3. DRIVE Jerkin’ (8/77) 4. VALVES Robot Love (9/77) 5. P.V.C. 2 Put You In The Picture (10/77) 6. JOHNNY & THE SELF ABUSERS Dead Vandals (11/77) 7. BEE BEE CEE You Gotta Know Girl (11/77) 8. SUBS Gimme Your Heart (2/78) 9. SKIDS Reasons (No Bad NB 1, 4/78) 10. FINGERPRINTZ Dancing With Myself (1/79)  11. THE ZIPS Take Me Down (4/79) 12. ANOTHER PRETTY FACE All The Boys Love Carrie (5/79)  13. VISITORS Electric Heat (5/79) 14. JOLT See Saw (6/79) 15. SIMPLE MINDS Chelsea Girl (6/79) 16. SHAKE Culture Shock (7/79) 17. HEADBOYS The Shape Of Things To Come (7/79) 18. FIRE EXIT Time Wall (8/79) 19. FREEZE Paranoia (9/79) 20. FAKES Sylvia Clarke (9/79) 21. TPI She’s Too Clever For Me (10/79) 22. FUN 4 Singing In The Showers (11/79) 23. FLOWERS Confessions (12/79) 24. TV21 Playing With Fire (4/80) 25. ALEX FERGUSSON Stay With Me Tonight (1980) 1. THE REZILL