Lunchtime Theatre
PPP: Lion Lion
★★★☆☆ Troubled:
Joy Adamson and the lion Elsa, immortalised in the film Born Free, where the figureheads of African wildlife conservation in the 1960s, changing public opinion towards big cats as animals to be nurtured rather than shot.
PPP: Chic Murray: A Funny Place For A Window
★★★★☆ Fitting tribute:
As you might expect, there are plenty of laughs in Chic Murray: A Funny Place For A Window. What is less expected is a touching and beautifully acted love story.
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: 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: One Thinks of It All as a Dream
★★★☆☆ Mixed bag:
There is an odd combination of the poetic and the straightforward to One Thinks of It All as a Dream, the latest Play, Pie and a Pint lunchtime theatre at the Traverse.
