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Pothole Kingdom

Òran Mór,Glasgow

Four stars

 Everything is going off down at the local community centre in Ross Mackay’s new play, where an old school Tory turned Reform defector and a newly elected Green councillor are about to host a joint surgery for their constituents. As Jeremy and Viv argue the ideological toss, it turns out they might be closer to being two sides of the same coin than either of them likes to think. 

 

The first test of this unlikely alliance comes in the form of Lenny, whose faith in the political system, it’s probably fair to say, has reached the end of its tether. Locked in for the night as accidental captives, the trio work their way behind unworkable ideologies to more workaday matters worth voting for before negotiating an uneasy truce that might just get blown apart any second. 

 

With elections looming and political allegiances on all sides increasingly polarised, Mackay’s mini satire couldn’t be more telling about the current state we’re in. Jordan Blackwood’s lunchtime production for A Play, a Pie and a Pint sees Jeremy’s grizzled mix of cynical opportunism and patronising pragmatism at the coalface is perfectly brought to life by Andy Clark. This is offset beautifully by Nalini Chetty as Viv, whose mash-up of idealism, naïveté and sense of superiority is equally recognisable. Martin Donaghy’s Lenny, meanwhile, is the ultimate voice of the politically disenfranchised, let down by leaders of all stripes and with a simmering anger ready to explode. 

 

As promises are made, all involved may appear to be off the hook, but as is the case with the veneer of democracy, nothing is ever resolved. The punchline, when it comes, won’t solve anything either, but in a volatile landscape where most people only want their bins emptied on time and the local library kept open, it’s one more accident waiting to happen in an intelligently comic look at the fallout of everyday politics.


The Herald, April 30th 2026

 

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