Òran Mór, Glasgow
Three stars
When two lesbian bikers of a certain age walk into an island bar, it’s no joke for teenage Ruari in Ryan Hay’s new play for A Play, a Pie and a Pint’s ongoing lunchtime theatre season. Helen and Jane have been around the block together, a high-speed double act of Harley Davidsons, leather jackets and war stories about seeing Joan Jett and the Runaways at Glasgow Apollo. Things are changing, however, not least for Ruari, who runs the bar in their dad’s seemingly permanent absence, and is doing a lot of growing up beyond serving whisky after hours.
There is a lot going on in Hay’s play, set over three years when Helen and Jane drop in to the bar for weekend breaks. While much is left unsaid, the late night debates that eventually cut loose sound at points like textbook guides to dealing with the growing pains of becoming who you want to be.
Caitlin Skinner’s low-key slow burn of a production brings this rites of passage play to life in understated fashion on Gillian Argo’s old school barroom set in this co-production with the Stellar Quines company. There is a thoughtfulness to the performances of Ros Watt as Ruari, Liz Kettle as Helen and Jill Riddiford as Jane. As they skirt around each other and the issues at hand, they slowly come to terms with some of the big changes at play. The mood is enhanced by Ross Nurney’s brooding soundscape in a production that suggests that, even with the most intimate ways of being, there are things to be learnt across both sides of the generational divide, whichever way you travel.
The Herald, May 28th 2026
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