A Play A Pie and A Pint
PPP: Eulogy
★★★☆☆ Surprising:
Rob Drummond surpasses even his own reputation for theatrical twisting and turning with the memorable Eulogy, an invitation to the lunchtime funeral service of the late Sandy Munro.
PPP: Margaret Saves Scotland
★★☆☆☆ Sugary:
Margaret Saves Scotland, the latest offering in the Play, A Pie and A Pint season, marks the return of Val McDermid to the stage. Anyone expecting a taut and bloody crime thriller, however, should be warned that this is a low-key piece, wistful and almost wilfully slight.
PPP: Rachel’s Cousins
★★★★☆ Clever comedy:
Upbeat and often very funny indeed, Rachel’s Cousins, this week’s A Play, A Pie and A Pint lunchtime theatre at the Traverse, doesn’t allow the prospect of cancer to get in its way.
PPP: McGonagall’s Chronicles
★★★★☆ Cheerful complexity:
Gary McNair’s McGonagall’s Chronicles, the first in the new series of A Play, A Pie and a Pint at the Traverse, is a winningly daffy confection. While it may not treat its subject entirely fairly, it does at least show him unusual sympathy.
PPP: Love and Death in Govan and Hyndland
★★★☆☆ Recognisable
Excellent acting and directing distinguish Love and Death in Govan and Hyndland, the latest Play, Pie and a Pint offering at the Traverse. In the end, however, the play treads overly familiar ground.
PPP: Pleading
★★★★☆ Tensely human:
Rob Drummond’s Pleading gets the latest series of A Play, A Pie and A Pint at the Traverse off to a particularly strong start.
Jocky Wilson Said
★★★★☆ I’m in heaven:
Blessed memories of a Scottish sporting legend are evoked superbly by Grant O’Rourke in the Gilded Balloon’s Jocky Wilson Said.
PPP: His Final Bow
★★★★☆ Bonne bouche:
Theatre is all about stories and performance, but when the two turn in on themselves, things get messy and out of control – as His Final Bow, this week’s lunchtime theatre at the Traverse shows.
PPP: Channelling Jabez
★★★☆☆ Frothy:
Channelling Jabez, the latest A Play, A Pie and A Pint production at the Traverse, is a charmingly inconsequential story that is cleverly staged and strangely attractive.
PPP: Ding-Dong (A Bit of a Farce)
★★☆☆☆ Slight
The first offering in the new series of A Play, A Pie and A Pint at the Traverse, has its heart in the right place and provides some laughs, but ultimately fails to convince either as a farce or as a more conventional comedy.
