Oran Mor, Glasgow

Play, Pie, Pint

25-30 May

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The Oran Mor has a knack for serving diverse theatrical slices with its pies & pints, & ‘Thoughts Spoken Aloud From Above’ really does take the biscuit. A Russian play, by the celebrated Yuri Kladiev (translated by by Alexandra Smith), we are taken on a Yellow-Submarine like journey through a series of observational vignettes. The play is acted with an almost inebriating desire by Simon Donaldson & Kirsty Stuart, who enact Kladiev’s global tour with a deft & delicate touch.

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Surreal situations abound throughout the play, from penguins parleying with cannibals in the Antarctic, to spaced-out cosmonauts ruminating upon the chronic Wastelands of Modern Life. At times, the script rises to the heights of pure poetry, & by the end of the play one is left with a feeling of pleasant confusion, & not sure exactly what has just happened. Yet as they say, the journey is the destination, & there is a genuine warmth to this play that manages to pack into its hour more interest & subtle theme-variations than about five British plays of the same length. I am not qualified to say if anything was lost in the the translation, but ‘Thoughts Spoken Aloud From Above is an excellent piece,’ & equally as excellent a production.

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Reviewer : Damo Bullen