Websters Theatre Glasgow

12^th-17^th October

At the East End of Kelvinbridge the old Lansdowne Parish Church has been taken over by the same company that runs Cottiers in Glasgow’s West End and transformed into a performance venue. Very similar in feel to Cottiers theatre it has a great acoustic and conveys a sense of intimacy while still being a decent size. It’s situated right across Great Western Road from Kelvinbridge Underground station.

Windae Hingin’ is a two-hander set in the opposite ground floor flats of a Glasgow tenement and the two characters mainly converse by means of their open windows, hence the title. Written,produced and directed by Gurmeet Mattu this was a production of the amateur Yorkhill Theatre Group.

Maggie McClintock (Helene Fitzgerald) is a couthy hard-boiled Glesca woman of a certain age and Jeannie Cranwell (Carol Fraser) is a newly wed from the north of Scotland who has just moved in to her rented flat along with hapless husband Alan.

It takes time, but the two slowly become friends as Maggie give Jeannie the benefit of her experience and local knowledge by extricating Alan from the long arm of the law when he is wrongly accused of thefts at his work.

Unfortunately the piece plodded due to both the script and some rather leaden acting. You could imagine an Elaine C Smith-type character making something of the material but laughs were few and far between and fluffed lines and cues didn’t help. Admittedly, it was an amateur production but if you charge people for a performance you have to come up with something more substantial. It was an interesting concept that didn’t fulfill it’s initial promise. TWO STARS

Reviewer : Dave Ivens