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Ready Tae Drap

Òran Mór, Glasgow 

Three stars

 

The double edged sword in the title of Éimi Quinn’s new comedy gradually becomes apparent through the three women at the heart of this opening salvo from A Play, a Pie and Pint’s latest season of lunchtime theatre. Set in the pungently scented lift of a Glasgow high rise, the play pits Lauren as our guide and narrator as she introduces us to her neighbours while preparing for a hen do with her pals. 

 

First up is Pat, who’s been in the block for years, and has an opinion on everyone and everything. Behind her potty-mouthed pontificating, Pat has something precious in her bag she carries with her all the time. Then there is Aaliyah, a heavily pregnant Mother Earth migrant whose devotion to her offspring inspires Lauren to keep an ever-expanding list of exactly why motherhood isn’t for her. 

 

Lauren says she wants a quiet life, though her PVC outfit and the bottles of sticky blue booze she necks beg to differ. As Lauren does the introductions, there are initial shades here of Jim Cartwright’s play, Road, in which neighbours self destruct themselves into oblivion, reset here for a tower block. Once the lift shudders to a halt, however, Quinn channels a classic confined space dramatic trope as these three very different women are forced to confront each other and themselves in getting beyond their everyday prejudices. 

 

Maureen Carr’s production flits between the play’s sit-com style banter and the educational pamphlet it becomes as Lauren, Pat and Aaliyah confront a few ugly home truths on their collective doorstep before finding a very necessary sense of solidarity. As the trio spar inside Heather Grace Currie’s metal box of a set, Isabelle Joss as Pat, Tinashe Warikandwa as Aaliya and Quinn herself as Lauren throw themselves into what evolves into an extended riff on womanhood, motherhood and everything in-between.


The Herald, September 3, 2026

 

ends

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