PPP

Oran Mor, Glasgow

 22 – 27 February

Script: Stagecraft:  Performance:

George Docherty has added playwright to his repertoire of talents. Twenty years of acting has lead him to write what he would normally act. No bad thing. His cast comprising Sarah Carmichael ( Helen Logan), her husband Rev. Martin Carmichael ( Alan Steele) and the stranger in need of help Stephen ( Ewan Petrie) – who turns up at their door soaking in his tea shirt and jeans with head injury and no recollection of how it happened – are all excellent and very believable characters. Sarah is struggling, suffering from M.E. when she used to be the life and soul of the party and her preacher partner is struggling with hardened arteries to keep her amused; ‘What do you want…what would make you happy?’ The question of life eh? He thinks it might be fancy dresses, bigger house, but ultimately she wants to be noticed, touched and loved.

Docherty has illustrated through his plot and actors a very simple message – is the slog worth it when we want to realise our dreams?  No-one knows what is waiting round the corner in this crazy messed up world but who you will find yourself identifying with? Will it be the self trapped wife, struck down with the debilitating condition of myalgic encephalomyelitisor, or are you more of the helper, carer kind willing to assist because you love the yuppie and know that she will probably marry you for your efforts?

This disgruntled married couple face a storm in a storm. An angel in a teacup? Or a devil in disguise? After a dram the stranger Stephen gets poetic preaching to the converted Reverend and his mid life crises wife, ‘Your only significance is your insignificance.’ Is this, as Rev. Martin believe , his murder about to happen? Sarah, in sarcastic retort, enhances her husbands suspicions that Stephen’s a ‘hit man, it’s a great big game of cluedo. Killed in a manse with a walking stick? Too far fetched?’ Maybe, but there are some witty one liners that will strike a chord, even if its not the angelic kind.

Reviewer: Clare Crines