Perth Theatre
Four stars
The writing is on the wall for Alanah, the sparky young woman in Matthew McVarish’s solo play, receiving its first revival since it was seen in 2012. Alanah is living the high life after a fashion, that fashion being in a twenty-storey tower block in a concrete jungle where she moved when her husband dumped her after just three months of wedded bliss.
That was after Alanah dropped out of uni and pretty much everything else besides to make someone else’s dreams come true. Now she’s chief bridesmaid for her neurotic best mate Zoe’s forthcoming nuptials while holding down a job in the family planning drop in centre. Other people’s private lives, it seems, are demanding her attention at the expense of anything resembling a life of her own.
Just to cap things off, some would-be street poet has started graffitiing bon mots on the wall next to the lift. The fact that she can trace each phrase back to things said to her by assorted people in her own life may be cause for concern, but at least it gives her some kind of lifeline.
Julie Cullen is a force of nature as Alanah in Patrick Sandford’s Perth Theatre production, setting the tone from the moment she burls her way through the auditorium, all the way through to a final epiphany when everything begins to make sense once more. Small in stature but larger than life, as Alanah confides in the audience, she even manages to be bigger than the high rise backdrop of Emily James’ set.
Over a series of bite size scenes, Alanah sketches out a cast list of friends and neighbours who occupy her world, from the old Polish lady upstairs whose messages she delivers, to the young girl at the clinic whose dreams are about to be prematurely snuffed out. Alanah herself is a working class heroine whose perennial chirpiness is heightened by the jauntiness of Colin Ross Waterson’s musical score. As each piece of graffiti becomes ever more meaningful, the end result is something quietly life affirming as Alanah finally finds her way home.
The Herald, September 28th 2026
Ends
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