Cathy has just buried her husband, Tommy. Her daughter Flo, son-in-law Colin and granddaughter Amy bring take out round after the funeral. But it’s not long before the bickering breaks out over the prawn crackers, and long-buried family tensions are cast around like cold chicken chow mein.

This new play from local writer and director Eilidh Loan explores intergenerational relationships and the challenges that come with loving other people when you struggle to love yourself. Cathy’s dealing with her grief in all the esoteric ways that make sense when you’re lost in the shock. Flo’s on anti-depressants and her mum’s in denial. Amy’s pregnant, planning to raise the baby on her own and forlornly trying to keep the two generations of warring women together when they seem determined to prise themselves apart.

Elaine C Smith is magnificent as Cathy, the woman adrift without her husband, too angry with herself to look out for other people. Flo (Michele Gallagher) is brittle in her misery. Amy (Chloe Hodgson) is a lone voice of reason, trying to deal with her grief while mediating between her spiky elders. Lizzie (Sally Reid), Amy’s co-worker in the charity shop, is a ray of sunshine in the gloom, wallowing apparently inanely in show tunes and soft toys, making her final devastating reveal all the more moving. And Colin (Alan Orr) is sweetly hapless in amongst three generations of women wired to self-destruct.

There are a few tantalisingly untied ends, some insignificant and others more substantial. The flickering light over the funeral supper is an early suggestion of a spooky direction that the script doesn’t take. Amy’s baby’s father is an untold story and the biggest omission is the origin of Cathy and Flo’s deep-seated antipathy. But Loan’s ascerbic wit sparkles throughout and her deft directorial hand means the action skips along without straying into undue sentimentality. Kenny Miller’s versatile design documents the gradual return of colour to Cathy’s life as well as providing a spectacular closing tableau. This is a fun, funny and heart-warming story of hope where it looks like there is none.

Cathy is at Traverse 1 at Traverse Theatre until Sun 30 Aug 2026