It's 1967, Pink Floyd are hitting the big time, and front man, and creative powerhouse, Syd Barrett is showing signs of erratic behaviour. Is that down to the effects of the drugs that flow plentifully around their rock star universe, or there something more serious going on?
Commissioned as part of the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival, the action shows the changes in Barrett's mental state over a period of several years, and the affect this had on the other members of the band. The costumes and set do a good job of taking us back to the sixties, but the dialogue says otherwise. It's stilted, artificial and loaded with heavy handed references to contemporary events just to sledgehammer home the times. This ersatz reality detracts from very real sense of Barrett's other-worldliness and the reactions of his musical colleagues. At times it has the feel of a badly narrated documentary.
The play is partially redeemed by the final five minutes, showing Barrett some years after he left the band, when Euan Cuthbertson's portrayal is at it's best, and the ambiguity surrounding the real causes of Syd's problem is amplified. Andrew John Tait gives a good performance as the voice-of-sense and commercially driven Roger Waters, but the other cast members are overly by the script. And the cameo portrait of controversial psychiatrist R D Laing was a shoehorned reference too far.
It all felt like a missed opportunity. Disappointing.
PS. On returning to the bar there was seventies Fleetwood Mac pouring from the speakers. Coincidence, or did someone in the Traverse decide it would be ironic to suggest a link between Barrett and the equally tragic figure of Peter Green? I think we should be told....
The play is partially redeemed by the final five minutes, showing Barrett some years after he left the band, when Euan Cuthbertson's portrayal is at it's best, and the ambiguity surrounding the real causes of Syd's problem is amplified. Andrew John Tait gives a good performance as the voice-of-sense and commercially driven Roger Waters, but the other cast members are overly by the script. And the cameo portrait of controversial psychiatrist R D Laing was a shoehorned reference too far.
It all felt like a missed opportunity. Disappointing.
PS. On returning to the bar there was seventies Fleetwood Mac pouring from the speakers. Coincidence, or did someone in the Traverse decide it would be ironic to suggest a link between Barrett and the equally tragic figure of Peter Green? I think we should be told....
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