Friday 3 November 2017

#71 (A Play, a Pie and a Pint), Traverse

Chrissy's struggling.  She still misses her deceased husband, and her fibromyalgia is getting worse.  So she's made a big decision, and has asked her two oldest friends round to share it with them.  Trouble is, they've never been able to stand each other, so will they be able to come together for Chrissy's sake?

Jean's an archetypal wee Glesgae wifie, staunch catholic and mistress of the unintentional malapropism.  Coco is flamboyant, pretentious, and strives for her very own 'je ne sais quoi'.  Chalk and cheese.

There's a bit of a mystery to be revealed, a bit of the past to be explored, but the storyline gets disjointed at times and doesn't stand up to much analysis as a coherent plot.  It has the feel of an extended sketch rather than a full blown drama.  This isn't a play that leaves you pondering the meaning of life.

In recompense it's just one laugh after another, with some hilarious wordplay, and a number of throwaway lines you have to be alert to catch on to.  There's a moment of some tenderness towards the end, but the emphasis is very much on comedy, and it delivers as sheer entertainment.

Maureen Carr gives the standout performance as Jean, although she also gets most of the best lines (like the time she went to church and suddenly had an eppy fanny....), and a surprisingly excellent grime rendition.  Claire Waugh is a less convincing Coco, an unlikely septuagenarian, but does a nice line if faux superiority.  And Karen Dunbar, who also wrote the script, is suitably frustrated by the inability of the others to stop bickering and listen to her news.

Not the most memorable play in the P, P and P series, but one of the funniest, and that's no bad thing, is it?

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