Motherwell, “Surf City” the Bondi Beach of Lanarkshire, Malibu of the North - even though it’s 25 miles from the f***ing sea.
This is the incongruous starting point of a road trip in a “borrowed” car along single-track roads with passing places to the very north of Scotland. Not exactly a holiday though, as our heroes Alex and Brian are on a mission to sell a surf board. Unfortunately the board is still in the ownership of Alex's former employer, schizophrenic gangster, Mr Binks.
It will be a journey of discovery - both of the countryside, the people and themselves as they are pursued onwards and eventually find their own way.
The Scotland they discover is not exactly what they were expecting, as along with the ceilidhs and castles the ever changing landscape is peopled by a host of characters including installation artists, hippies and Canadian geologists.
This is in part a re-staging of an earlier production by another branch of the same company and benefits from a fairly detailed set featuring a near full size car and backscreen projection. The quality of the acting is good with the majority of the cast having played the parts before, but for all these advantages this production doesn’t fully engage gear. Often described as a “road movie for the stage” It should be a roller-coaster ride but this is overly long and a bit pedestrian with many of the jokes stalled.
An ambitious production that doesn’t quite get the mileage it needs out of what is a good play, and one which is surely as relevant to national identity as when first performed in 1997.
Show Times: 10 to 15 August 2015 at 5.20pm.
Ticket Prices: £9 (£8).
Suitability: 16+