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Wallace

Oran Mor, Glasgow

Four stars

 

For a certain generation, the image of William Wallace means a be-mulleted Mel Gibson in Braveheart roaring about freedom from behind Saltire inspired face paint. Fast forward to 2025, and such stuff of Hollywood legend doesn’t quite cut it as imagined history anymore. Or does it?

 

Whichever way you roll, stand up for Rob Drummond and Dave Hook’s bite-size hip hop musical dissection of the much mythologised thirteenth century knight who led the charge against the English army in 1297, and has been considered king of Scotland’s ‘hood ever since.

 

Drummond and Hook set out their store in a pub conversation between a trio known only as Scotsman, Wummin and Sassenach. As Hook, Patricia Panther and Manasa Tagaca embody these archetypes, they argue the toss over who Wallace was, what he was all about and whether Scotland’s ultimate hero of independence even existed. Their various interpretations of history are played out through a series of mini rap battles that bring their would-be idol to life in a series of fast flowing rhymes all set to Hook’s steady back beat. Through all this, the machismo of yore is challenged, with Panther’s Wummin’ coming to the fore to reclaim women’s’ role in a past gone mad that is continually being rewritten.

 

This opening show for A Play, a Pie and a Pint’s autumn season of lunchtime theatre ismore of a song cycle linked by a series of pub quiz style factoids than a fully rounded play per se. This doesn’t stop Orla O’Loughlin’s dynamic little production from tapping into its subject matter with a confidence and wit helped along by having three actual hip hop artists on stage. 

 

Co-produced with the Raw Material hit factory, Drummond and Hook have created a pop-tastic banger of a show that goes beyond Scots myths to liberate an old story in a way that could easily be extended for a full-length remix. Now that’s what I call freedom.


The Herald, September 4th 2025

 

Ends

 

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