Showing @ The Store, Guthrie Street, 24-26 Feb 19:30
Michael Shand, from upcoming Scottish theatre company That’s Lunch Productions, is rapidly establishing himself as a competent, skilled and mature playwright. Some of his earlier productions including Give a Dog a Bad Name and Todd investigate the human psyche in all its sensitivity and limitation. Now, he stages his fourth play Robin Red Breast, a one-act drama surrounding three men from “hugely diverse backgrounds” who all respond to an anonymous job advert entitled “for people ashamed of their past”. This exploration of humankind’s capability to bury memories hints towards Shand’s growing ambition as he begins to externalise his analysis of individuality. To be performed at the homely intimate venue The Store, and with a seeming plethora of ideas at hand, it seems this production is packed with potential.
This script may begin to reveal the true maturity of Shand’s writing. As he attempts to fuse his examination of identity with its place in society, we can expect a fairly dark and intense engagement. Unlike his “humorous and at times cathartic rendition” Apathy, a play which builds itself around the lives of school cleaners, Shand brings together characters from ostensibly disparate environments. It’s an ambiguity which could nod towards a critique of the western world’s obsession with promoting interculturalism, but bear a genuine and quite sobering metaphor for our ability (or inability) to let go of our past. Shand has expressed his interest in the class system and so it may be that his characters portray that sense of grittiness associated with historical depictions of the working-classes. Ultimately, Shand appears to be challenging the status quo and that’s something which will be well received in our politically frustrated society.