Damned Rebel Bitches, Traverse

A thriller, mystery and love story with 2 octogenarians at the heart of the action is an unusual mix, but Sandy Thompson has written a story that flits across the years and serves a reminder that the person behind the wrinkles is a reservoir of knowledge and experiences, not be lightly dismissed as the older generation so often is.

Before the actors take the stage it's the set that immediately fascinates.  It's a chaotic jumble of seemingly random items - a wheelchair,a guitar, a pith helmet, lots of cardboard boxes and old chairs, stepladder, UPVC window, goldfish bowl, washing line, the list goes on and on.  And every item will find a role in the drama as the set proves it's flexibility and constantly changes shape, time and place, the actors themselves moving the pieces around the board, and making their costume changes in among the jumble.

Ella's grandson Cameron has disappeared.  In New York.  So she sets off from Glasgow with older sister Irene, and together the too of them set about tracking him down.  Early on in the tale we discover that an adventurous Ella manages to save him from the full force of Hurricane Sandy, and the play.  But from then on the story unfolds through flashbacks, going right back to the sisters' childhood in wartime, and through various stages of their (primarily Ella's) lives.  Her life is one of ups and downs that toughen her up into a woman who isn't going to be phased by a mere storm, and she can still teach the youngsters some lessons.

Throughout the action comprises short scenes, time and place announced by one or other cast member, with the four actors playing a wide range of characters and/or ages.  Occasionally this can become confusing, the direction not quite taught enough to hold the timeline together, but the essentials are easy enough to follow.  All four of the cast are excellent, but it's the seventy something Tina Gray as Ella who stands out - she can still do a wonderful nine year old.  And all four get plenty of laughs, amidst all the traumas of war, bereavement, the big events in people's lives across eight decades.

Ella is an embodiment of the need to change with the times as life moves on, and not get stuck in a past that becomes fictionalised in memory.  A lesson a lot of people could do with in current times....