Life in a Scotch Sitting Room taken to new 18 storey heights.
Paul (Cristian Ortega) is a young lad who finds himself well out of his own comfort zone when he is hauled in to the weird and shambolic wee world of Bald (Keith Fleming) and his Ma (Anne Lacey).
Paul is being accused of stealing a bike. Bald’s big yellow bike. And he must have stolen it ‘cause Ma saw him didn’t she and Ma doesnae tell lies. He is interrogated under the constant threat of ‘the 999’ being called by Bald the over grown latch key kid dressed in a hauf-zipped parka, whose extremely expressive fingers stick out of a dirty bandage. He is accused by the Ma- who- must- be- obeyed in her fringed suede jacket and psychedelic leggings and who likes the boys in her house to be good boys.
The seemingly innocuous title of Martin McCormick’s latest play points up the yawning chasm between Paul who comes from a world where diluting juice is called squash and his creepy captors who live a squashed and narrow life and their drug strewn high rise flat. So far so stereotypical. As in any good story, things are not what they seem. Paul may be neither a bike thief nor an ‘ethnic’ (Bald and Ma’s description of their neighbours) but he is certainly not whiter than white.
Soft club style organ music forms the background throughout this smartly written disturbing piece but the opening Hawaiian guitar twanging out a version of You Belong to Me could not have been better chosen to subtly underline the oedipal control that features so creepily in this play.
This twisted claustrophobic black comedy takes a sudden and truly sinister turn after the half- way point that stops laughter soundly in its tracks. The three strong cast reveals the lies and deceit that make up this multi -faceted drama with considerable skill under Finn Den Hertog’s direction. It is a dark lesson in how the perception of othersness can distort lives.
Age Recommendation
14+
Tue 21 Oct – Sat 25 Oct 1pm
(additional 7pm performance on Fri, 10 Oct) £12 (includes a play, a pie and a pint of beer/125ml glass of house wine/regular glass of Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, lemonade, orange juice, tea or filter coffee)
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