Oran Mor, Glasgow
Three stars
The loneliness of the jobbing actor has been the stuff of back stage dramas for many a year. For every fairytale story of overnight stardom and hitting the big time in Hollywood, alas, the every day reality is more one of under appreciated graft. In today’s world of instant stardom, after all, if you want to be famous, the internet is where it’s at. It’s a generational thing. Maybe.
Matt Anderson’s new play for A Play, a Pie and a Pint’s latest lunchtime theatre season takes a look at both as he sets up an overdue reunion between Gerry and Tyler. Gerry is a fifty-something actor who has just opened a smaller than small scale tour of Death of a Sails Man with his partner Peter. Tyler is Gerry’s seventeen-year-old son, a ‘content provider’ with several million followers on social media.
When Tyler turns up unannounced in Gerry’s dressing room after his first preview, it’s to relay to him a life changing offer that involves a fantasy sword and sorcery book Gerry used to read to him and the prospect of life in the L.A. fast lane. The pair have a few things to sort out first, however, not least of which being what it means to be an actor, let alone a successful one.
Edoardo Berto’s production has fun with Anderson’s script, which is brought to life by George Drennan as a world weary Gerry, whose underachieving lot in life is alleviated by the contents of his dad’s old tobacco tin. Alexander Tait’s Tyler may have a big future ahead of him, but maybe he and his dad aren’t that different after all.
As Andrew Agnew’s Peter plays piggy in the middle, amongst the theatrical in jokes and hand me down sense of ambition is a good old-fashioned father-son story that sees Gerry and Tyler renew old bonds as they take on the world together.
The Herald, November 6th 2025
ends
Comments