BigVillage Theatre Company pride themselves on giving anyone the opportunity, regardless of experience or ability level, to get up and have a go, with their approach to theatre always leaning towards the fun and comedic, with last year's Fringe show Almost Haunted receiving four star reviews and high praise.
Daft fun is definitely the order of the day in their latest Fringe venture with The Love Shop, originally written in 2005 by Lorraine McCann who won the BigVillage Playwriting Competition, this is a new version that McCann also directs.
It's August 1967, the groovy ‘Summer of Love' and in a dour wee charity shop that never has customers, owner Annie (Janey Grant) is insistent she doesn't want love, but is clearly yearning for that special someone. Meanwhile her young assistants Claire (Helen McMillan) and Murdo (Cordon Craig) dance around each other too afraid to approach the other and express their feelings.
On one fateful day, two old fruit bat sisters (Rebecca Fairnie and Helen Burns) bring in a teapot for Annie to help her quest for a romantic horizon, explaining that the teapot has been enchanted by a one-eyed gypsy from Troon. Once in the shop, the teapot becomes the centre of a farcical romp through which unions can and should be made, but circumstance and timing mean it's just one disaster after another as cupid's arrow is taken from his winged back and aimed in all manner of comic directions with the aide of many a brew.
The simple premise is presented as a silly romp of mix-ups and cross-wires, resulting in a mish-mash of short scenes that are packed with quick wit and local colour, McMillan's Claire delivering her meanderings with a refreshingly dead-pan understatement.
This is juxtaposed with Craig's Murdo, whose flamboyancy and pompousness are received well by the audience, but when actors verge on laughing at their own performance it takes away the humour.
The overall feel was that as a 40-minute piece, it was pushed to fill the slot, with a lot of unnecessary stage business of walking around faffing and long gaps between entries that jilted the pace and wit of the piece. There were many first night nerves which may have affected the energy but the Scottish majority crowd pleasured in the antics and dalliances offered, cracking up at the twee and overtired Scottish jokes we've all heard before.
This venture offers nothing new or clever to say, except maybe the age old concept of plucking up the guts to express your feelings to a fellow, but it is enjoyable nonetheless if you enjoy Scottish mockery, innuendo and old-style farce. On this occasion though, it just wasn't this reviewer's cup of tea.
Times: 10-16 August, 7.15pm
N.B: The roles of Annie, Claire and the Mrs. Tavishes are alternated every night throughout the run.
© Lindsay Corr