Websters Theatre, Glasgow

May 27th

The Webster’s Theatre in Glasgow is a suitably cavernous stage for the New College Lanakshire’s 2015 BA rep season. Their first play, David Greig’s San Diego, is a fitting choice for the bouncing energy of these youthful troupes, our proffessional actors & actresses of the future. Pulling off San Diego is not an easy task, but they did it well & with some great realism. The play is actually ‘dream’ of Mr Greig’s, set in the visceral streets of down town San Diego, & pregnant with the darker aspects of living, such as self-harming, hospitalized young ladies & street-wise San Diegan hookers, with Greig’s own death at the hands of a random stabbing the centre piece of teh action. of the play Greig states;

“I wrote San Diego during a one month residency at Hawthornden Castle near Edinburgh. The month began with a heavy snowfall and I remember leaning out of my cold tower room to smoke, looking out at the barren trees, and listening to the drip of the snowmelt. There was a rule of daytime silence at the castle with the result that, for a month, I lived almost entirely in my own head. I committed myself to writing the first thing that came into my mind without questioning it – I wanted to throw myself entirely on the mercy of my subconscious. This was the result”.

Greig’s Wolfeian Stream of Consciousness isn’t as dreamy as you think, & in the hands of the New College troupe there were many a moment to resonate with the modern mind. An excellent play played excellently.

Reviewer : Damo Bullen