A Play A Pie And A Pint

Oran Mor

Glasgow

May 16^th -21^st

Script:  Stagecraft:   Performance:

Yet another entertaining and absorbing fifty minutes of drama from Oran Mor’s A Play A Pie And A Pint. This week’s offering is so original and works on such a number of levels that it’s difficult to describe- but here goes…..

A co-production with Glasgow’s Bird Of Paradise Theatre Company, which promotes the work of disabled artists, Role Shift was by turns, a hilarious rollicking comedy, a comment on sexual mores and how the world views the disabled.  Into the bargain it also warns “never trust the translator.”

Mainly written throughout in rhyming verse, the action is set in the casino of a cruise ship and the three characters couldn’t be more contrasting. Ally, played by Robert Softley Gale (in real life too) is a disabled man in a wheelchair, Bernie, played by Louise McCarthy, is a big, blowsy woman, dressed up in a revealing glittery gown and Carrie, played by Natalie MacDonald and the cause of all the later trouble, is an interpreter for the deaf who signs the action throughout. A screen on either side of the stage also reproduces the dialogue as spoken.

From the outset Carrie makes it plain that she is fed up with “role shift” where she faithfully reproduces signing for the deaf on behalf of the two other characters and wants to become more a part of the action herself.

Bernie and Ally are both on the lookout for rich, handsome men at the roulette table and vying to snare a juicy catch. As the action hots up and more drink is taken Bernie and Ally discover they are attracted to each other but Carries intervention causes a calamity. It would spoil the plot to give away what takes place but the outcome is brilliantly played by all three and the plays’ title takes on a double meaning.

The actors had to pause several times during the performance to let the audience’s laughter subside, such was the comic delivery of a cracking script, This piece is both funny and thought provoking and definitely ends on a high. Written by Lesley Hart and directed by Garry Robson, Role Shift earned the players a rousing and well earned extra curtain call,  most unusual at Oran Mor. Be there or be square.

Reviewer : Dave Ivens