Òran Mór, Glasgow
Four stars
Life takes two people by surprise in this debut work by LC Stephens for A Play, a Pie and a Pint’s latest lunchtime theatre season. Stephens’s play focuses on Clare and Barry, habitués of Glasgow’s West End who find themselves in the same student friendly boozer one night trying to offload their respective baggage to each of their ill suited companions. Through a series of alternating monologues, we discover that both Clare and Barry’s worlds have been turned upside down by very different matters of life and death. We also learn that both parties feel like bit part players in their own story to the point of invisibility. Oh, and as Barry realises, even if Clare doesn’t, they already have history with each other.
There is a lovely sense of everyday mid life longing in Stephens’ script, brought charmingly and wittily to life in Graham McLaren’s elegant production on Gillian Argo’s simple but effective tables and chairs set. This is ideal for Barry and Clare’s accidental liaison, which sees Tom McGovern as Barry and Jo Freer as Clare sparring their way into each other’s hearts, with Keith Macpherson doubling up as assorted ghosts in their lives.
Punctuated by a juke box’s worth of vintage Me Generation classics, Stephens’ play is a warm and mature look at grown up love in a way that feels like the sort of Scottish romcom that used to fuel the country’s film industry. Driven by an off-kilter dryness in their exchanges, Barry and Clare stumble their way towards a complicated but happy ending. For those whose busy lives have left them on the sidelines, it gives hope for being seen once more.
The Herald, September 10, 2026
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