Coffee-Table Notes

Times of strife of various kinds take over Scottish stages this month, with working class lives very much to the fore as well as showbiz, spies and taking to the skies.   Windblown Byre Theatre, St Andrews, 2 May; Eden Court, Inverness,  6 May ; The Pavilion, Glasgow,  8-9 May ; Macrobert Arts Centre, Stirling,  14 May ; Perth Concert Hall,  16 May. Karine Polwart returns with her hugely successful fusion of storytelling and song inspired by a 200 year old tree at the Royal Botanic Garden. Featuring sound design by Pippa Murphy, stunning visuals by Jamie Wardrop and piano accompaniment by jazz pianist David Milligan, Polwart’s creation was described in The Herald’s five star review as ‘a work of monumental beauty’.      The High Life: The Musical – Still Living It! Eden Court, Inverness until 2 May; Dundee Rep,  6-9 May ; King’s Theatre, Glasgow,  12-23 May. More than three decades on from Alan Cumming and Forbes Masson’s short-lived Sco...

Festival Theatre, Edinburgh  Four stars   Johnny Cash and June Carter were destined to be together from the moment they met back stage at the Grand Ol’ Opry. The mercurial life the first couple of country music shared until their deaths months apart in 2003 could have been channelled from the sorts of songs that made them both international stars. Those lives are laid bare in Des McAnuff and Robert Cary’s warts and all tribute to Johnny and June in a show that goes beyond a greatest hits affair to get to the emotional heart of two pop cultural legends.    As the title suggests, this is made myth by a ballad, sung and played throughout by Johnny and June’s son and country music star in his own right, John Carter Cash. Played with considerable charm by Ryan O’Donnell, John becomes the show’s narrator, with a supporting cast doubling up as assorted personal and musical foils as well as what is effectively an all crooning Greek chorus.    The story Jo...

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh Three stars    It’s all over for Dylan and Roz at the start of Matt Anderson’s new play. Whatever happened, Dylan’s stuff is all packed up for him to collect. When he arrives, it is a frosty reception from Roz that awaits him. But how did these two former lovers get here, having one last awkward exchange before they go their very separate ways?   This is answered over the next sixty five minutes or so of Anderson’s own production, which cuts up a series of bite size scenes that jump between time frames to piece together a bittersweet romance that began with Dylan bumming a fag off Roz at a party. The highs and lows of the first love that follows leaves a profound sense of loss for them both as they career around each other towards the end.     First seen on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe back in 2024, Anderson’s own production for his Kangaroo Court outfit and here presented with Serpentine Productions retains a DIY feel in its sp...

Tron Theatre, Glasgow Four stars   In January 1981, 240 women occupied the Greenock factory they worked in after their jobs were put on the line following the factory’s sale. Like the then prime minister, these ladies weren’t for turning. Led by indomitable shop steward Helen Monaghan, the women’s struggle captured the public imagination, and after seven months, in the short term, at least, they won their fight.    Almost half a century on, Frances Poet has taken this vital piece of history and put it back on the front line in her new play that gets to the human heart of the story. Developed from an idea with journalist Paul English, Jemima Levick’s production - a collaboration between the National Theatre of Scotland and the Tron - sets out its store on Jessica Worrall’s old school social club set, where the six-strong cast punctuate each scene by playing some of the year’s smash hits like a cabaret cover band.    The girl group chutzpah on display in the ...

Òran Mór , Glasgow Four stars   Everything is going off down at the local community centre in Ross Mackay’s new play, where an old school Tory turned Reform defector and a newly elected Green councillor are about to host a joint surgery for their constituents. As Jeremy and Viv argue the ideological toss, it turns out they might be closer to being two sides of the same coin than either of them likes to think.    The first test of this unlikely alliance comes in the form of Lenny, whose faith in the political system, it’s probably fair to say, has reached the end of its tether. Locked in for the night as accidental captives, the trio work their way behind unworkable ideologies to more workaday matters worth voting for before negotiating an uneasy truce that might just get blown apart any second.    With elections looming and political allegiances on all sides increasingly polarised, Mackay’s mini satire couldn’t be more telling about the current state we’re in. J...

Summerhall, Edinburgh Three stars   Sigmund Freud: so much to answer for. This is certainly the case in terms of the original pop therapist’s relationship with Emma Eckstein. The well-heeled Viennese twenty-something only became a patient of her soon to be guru in search of a solution to her endometriosis. In terms of diagnosis, however, once she took up residence on Freud’s chaise longue she got considerably more than she bargained for. After a series of increasingly ludicrous claims from Freud and his scalpel wielding pal Wilhelm Fliess regarding Eckstein’s condition, she found herself scarred for life before following in Freud’s footsteps and becoming a psychoanalyst herself.    If such real life doctor/patient shenanigans in high places sounds like the template for some steampunk style historical reboot, this new play by Becca Robin Dunn and Claire Macallister doesn’t go quite that far, but neither is it shy of taking liberties. This is the case fr...

Festival Theatre, Edinburgh  Four stars    Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not after you. Joseph Heller’s deadpan maxim from Catch 22 could easily apply to Alec Leamas, the down at heel anti hero of John le  Carré ’s 1963 best selling novel. Set two years earlier, le  Carré ’s forensic study of secret agents shot by both sides of the Berlin Wall remains a darkly unsentimental piece of Brit-noir pulp fiction.   David Eldridge’s stage version heightens the light and shade of Leamas’ plight in Jeremy Herrin’s stiff-backed production. Played out by a cast of twelve on designer Max Jones’ array of black painted walls, this is where Leamas’s handlers in the below radar organisation known as The Circus pull the strings. As Ralf Little’s pugnacious Leamas sets out the story’s historical context, he is revealed as the ultimate burnt out cannon fodder this side of Harry Palmer. Whisky laced, tobacco stained and heavy coated, Leamas is forever caught...