Joe McDaid (Kevin P Gilday) wants to know what we think. The UK has left the EU and, as a sweetener to keep us happy, new powers have been devolved to Scotland, including citizenship. McDaid is running a focus group on behalf of new agency Citizen Scotland, to determine what questions should be included in the new citizenship test. Audience members have been handed out cards to give an 'Aye' or a 'Naw' to each option. There's a lot of audience involvement which helps build a more intimate atmosphere.
McDaid takes us through half a dozen potential subject areas, like inventions, language and alcohol. To begin with the performance is wholly comic, jokey, light hearted, with a rap number and a daft song accompanied, badly, on ukulele. But takes on a more serious note as the show develops, looking at Scotland's lack of confidence in ourselves, our ambivalent and often self destructive relationship with drink, and whether we're always as good as we portray ourselves. He declares himself an Indy supporter, but raises questions about where the Yes movement is now, and if people have lost sight of what Indy was really about - that independence isn't an end in itself, but a means to a chance of having a better society in this country.
Quite what an international audience makes of this is hard to say, but it certainly resonates with the Scots in the room. What starts as a show of thin humour and dubious musicality improves greatly as it goes along and starts to raise questions that aren't being asked often enough. The poetry is particularly impressive in conveying ideas. Gilday isn't a natural comedian, but he is an excellent storyteller, poet and ideas man. An intriguing show to end the Fringe on.
This was the final performance of Suffering from Scottishness.
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