The scene, in this the final of the lunchtime A Play, A Pie and A Pint shows, is the bedroom of a married couple who have been involved in their country’s revolution which, according to the man, Joe (Jon Morrison), has brought back “...colour to the world”. The audience is lifted to laughter as the play opens with Joe coming home like an aged lad, very well bevvied from an all night party, to his wife, Carmen (Lori McLean).
He has learned he is to have a cabinet post in the new order so is in suitably swaggering, sexually buoyant and in celebratory mood, assuming his wife will feel the same.
With the usual ‘men are from Mars, women from Venus’ interaction going on, the couple moves from trying to revive their old passion to facing up to their current reality and what led to it.
Carmen had given up her university education to "clean skirting boards" as a housewife but retained her capacity to think, something Joe seems to have lost. The anonymous delivery of a book by an ex-party member is a catalyst to their facing up to and dealing with how their pasts have shaped their present.
With strong, believable performances from both actors and authentic, tight dialogue from Alan Bissett, this was a great display of life’s complexities - the importance of paying attention to detail, the nuances of words and how feelings and politics don’t mix.
It is a brilliant climax to this season of lunchtime plays that again managed to retain the Latin American spirit of the original while becoming very recognisably Scottish . Here’s to the Autumn!
Show times
Tues 15 – Sat 19 Mar, 1pm
All Tickets are £12 and include a play, a pie and a drink from the top class Traverse Theatre bar café.