Oran Mor, Glasgow
Five stars
A wing and a prayer are everything in Morag Fullarton’s ingenious reimagining of one of the festive season’s most loved feelgood films. Celestial interventions aren’t just the order of the day for George Bailey, the small town saviour about to throw himself off a bridge at the start of the play as life gets too much to bear. They are there too for the show itself, which Fullarton confesses to the audience prior to its first night curtain hasn’t had a proper dress rehearsal due to assorted technical glitches. This is all done in mutual good humour, but Fullarton needn’t have worried, as what follows on Oran Mor’s tiny stage is one of the most joyously inventive theatrical experiences on show anywhere just now.
The can-do attitude of Fullarton and her company of four actors is a reflection of the show itself, which opens as a quartet of old school cinema usherettes attempt to pick up the pieces after a screening of Frank Capra’s 1946 classic on an old bed sheet falls prey to – yes – technical difficulties. After advising the audience to “get yourselves comfy and winch away”, however, the game quartet tap into their frontline wannabe movie star ambitions and do the whole thing themselves. While this allows any hiccups as hinted at by Fullarton to be duly absorbed into the action if need be, if there are any, you can’t see the join.
Over the next two hours, Chris Forbes, Rosie Graham, Simon Donaldson and Kevin Lennon manage to bring to life pretty much the entire population of Bedford Falls and a little bit of Heaven too. This is done with little more than quick changes of vocal inflection or a hat tilted differently as each actor switches character sometimes mid sentence or else accessorises with a piece of costume designer Vicki Brown’s vintage apparel.
With Forbes as Bailey, all four performers narrate the action as we rewind on George’s life. This gives the impression of dipping in to Philip Van Doren Stern’s original self published 1943 A Christmas Carol inspired short story, The Greatest Gift. Self published after numerous rejections, this ad hoc DIY spirit set the tone for things to come and has clearly left its mark.
With the first half telling George’s story in flashback, once this most virtuous of friendly neighbourhood good guys sees his guardian angel Clarence turn up to make a splash, we are thrown into a twilight zone of what ifs. As we see how things would have turned out without George around to provide a moral compass, the play itself, like the film, becomes a deceptively incisive critique of how greed and big business can destroy communities.
Played out on a picture house office set lined with posters of golden age big screen perennials including the one being performed, the mix of homage and pastiche makes for a comic whirlwind of riotous fun with a serious message at its heart. Graham switches between George’s saintly wife Mary and assorted blousy bar girls with ease, while Donaldson makes for a Scrooge-like Potter, with Kevin Lennon’s doleful Clarence alternating with his zippy Uncle Billy.
All this is driven by Hilary Brooks’ playful live score, which opens with a solo piano take on the old Pearl & Dean Presents cinema ad theme before punctuating the action with some familiar Hollywood matinee favourites turned into mini routines by choreographer Ian West. A word too for the assorted noises off from sound designer Craig McDonald.
There is a delicious devil may care cheek to proceedings that comes from confidence, both in the material and in how it is being delivered. Having done something similar with stagings of Casablanca and Sunset Boulevard, Fullarton’s production is a masterclass of pocket sized theatrical genius that shows just how much experience counts.
The late John McGrath’s notion of what constitutes a good night out is flung around a lot these days, but judging by the buzz both on stage and off here, Fullarton’s production is very much the real deal. She and the company have raised the bar to show what is possible with a show that many younger practitioners should watch and learn from. Like George, it is a lifesaver.
The Herald, December 17th 2025
Ends
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