False expectations are a curse, but when I saw that Val McDermid had written one of this seasons PP&Ps I couldn't help but look forward to it as a likely highlight. So perhaps my disappointment with the reality should be viewed in this light.
Apparently based on a true story from the fiFties, Margaret is a nine year old Yorkshire girl taken on holiday to Scotland. She falls in love with her surroundings, and with a romantic notion of the country, that is further fed by the only books about the subject she can lay her hands on at home. Fuelled by her perceived sense of injustice, she runs back over the border to lead the people in rebellion against their English masters....
The couple she stays with humour her notions until she can be safely returned home. Interspersed with songs of the shortbread tin variety, Margaret revels in her picture of a Scotland that never was.
McDermid was a powerful voice of sense in Indyref, and her commitment to Scottish Independence cannot be doubted. So it's impossible to view her work without that light being shone on it, and it raises the question as to what she is trying to achieve. Is it just a lighthearted comedy, based on a childhood memory, or another plank in the construction of the case to vote Yes next time around? Sadly it works as neither. There are a few reasonable jokes, but too much heavy handed scene setting and clunky dialogue makes it feel hard work - it's not often I find myself checking my watch in a 50 minute play. All the cast do a decent job with what they've got, especially Clare Waugh as Margaret's mother and the woman she lives with in Scotland, but can never fully overcome the script's limitations.
As a playwright McDermid makes for a good novelist.....
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