Coffee-Table Notes

Theatre 118, Glasgow Four stars   Everyone has their crosses to bear in Chris Patrick’s new play, in which a couple of believers meet in the sort of outdoor venue where decidedly unchristian things might happen in order to curry favour with the big guy upstairs. Our hapless pair aim to do this by way of hammer, nails, some handy DIY and a lot of faith to muffle the screams. When an angel finally does turn up to show them the way, rather than some beatific saviour bathed in a holy glow, this winged wonder is a grumpy naysayer who keeps his halo in his briefcase and is in permanent dispute with his boss.    The Lord moves in mysterious ways in Colin McGowan’s rapid-fire production that sees Patrick’s stream of one liners go beyond what initially looks like an extended routine into a scabrous comic look at the painful extremes of blind faith. Erin Scanlan’s naive disciple makes a kooky comic foil to Ross Flynn’s self appointed right hand man of God, played by Flynn as a...

Botanic Gardens, Glasgow Four stars   Don’t be fooled by the sound of thunder that opens this seasonal outdoor take on Shakespeare’s sauciest rom-com, already seen in several different guises over the last twenty-four years of Bard in the Botanics’ summer takeover of Glasgow’s leafiest gardens. The sound effect is likely just an in-joke on how many times rain has stopped play over the years.    This weekend, however, the gods - and more importantly, the sun - shone on Gordon Barr’s Celtic tinged affair that both sartorially and spiritually seemed to look to the early 1970s free festival scene. This was a time when assorted hippies, freaks and seekers after enlightenment jumped aboard the New Age caravan to get their collective heads together in the country.    Much of this styling is down to Carys Hobbs’ extravagant set and costume design, a magnificent multi coloured patchwork of faux regal exotica. The sound travelling from the two outdoor concerts in Gla...

Botanic Gardens, Glasgow  Four stars    The clock is ticking for the good doctor of Christopher Marlowe’s tragedy of self-destruction, brought to life for this year’s Bard in the Botanics season, tellingly titled Magic – mayhem – and murder.  Jennifer Dick’s three-actor version was first performed in the Kibble Palace back in 2016. Her revisitation is as much a trip into the perils of fantasy wish fulfilment as it was before in an even tauter eighty minutes that sees Faustus throw himself into a tug of love between the two extremes that seem to offer him a lifeline.    Having reached the pinnacle of his profession only to lose his mojo, Faustus’s desires go way beyond the appliance of science. As if by magic, Mephistopheles appears to make him an offer he can’t refuse. Only the Good Angel hanging on his shoulder is standing in his way.   As in Dick’s original production, Faustus is embodied by a returning Adam Donaldson as a frustrated academic wh...

Festival Theatre, Edinburgh Three stars   Ghosts and a whole lot more are in the house in Ali Milles’ overloaded thriller, resurrected by the Original Theatre company following a truncated run in 2020 cut short by lockdown.    It begins simply enough, as the spirited Laura arrives at her family home in the hills with her older lover Suzanne in tow. Before the pair can settle in, unreconstructed family ghillie David arrives to check out the cottage hasn’t been occupied by interlopers. Other former residents soon make their presence felt, however, as what started out as a retreat for Laura and Suzanne becomes an almighty confrontation.    As time slips back and forth between Liza Goddard’s Enid all the way up to Laura’s own mother, history repeats itself by way of several generations of dangerous liaisons and secret affairs that make up a century spanning soap opera. Throw in some free thinking talk of witches and selkies and as the rocking chair springs into unoc...

Tron Theatre, Glasgow Five stars   It’s a dog’s life for Ronnie, the man at the centre of Douglas Maxwell’s beautifully realised new play, brought to life in a heart wrenching solo turn by Jordan Young. In charge of five of his neighbours’ pet hounds, Ronnie’s entire life is kept on a pretty short leash as he attempts to navigate the assorted excitable personalities of his furry brood. Yet, for all he never quite bonds with his charges, and however hazardous their daily walks might be, their presence fills a vacuum in Ronnie’s own life that since the Covid induced lockdown has left him bereft. When a particularly chaotic morning finds one of the dogs raking up something unexpected in the woods, it is a necessary shock to the system.    There is huge heart at play in Maxwell’s writing, which looks at the fallout of everyday tragedy against a much larger backdrop to bring it emotionally alive in an immaculately structured work full of big ideas about humanity, loss and surv...

Oran Mor, Glasgow Four stars   “You are us,” says the Inquisitor of Peter Arnott’s play to his silent Prisoner at one point. This is a telling moment in this unspecified war of attrition that reveals the similarities as much as the differences between those in one conflict or another. Whether political, religious or generational, as the Inquisitor expounds on morality, ethics and all the contradictions at play that give us the excuse to square any circle we like in the name of whatever cause is going, for a veteran like him, this time it seems, it’s also personal.    Tom McGovern’s Inquisitor is every inch the establishment mandarin in Liz Carruthers’ suitably elliptical production, the final lunchtime offering from A Play, a Pie and a Pint’s spring and summer season. Sat in the old school splendour of designer Heather Grace Currie’s set, McGovern waxes forth from his desk while his Prisoner, initially bound, but always captive, acts as a human sounding board, never givin...