Showing @ Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh until Sat 11 Oct @ 19:30
This Glasgow gangster comedy drama, co-produced with the Citizen’s Theatre, is writer DC Jackson‘s first original commission for the Lyceum. He has cleaved the basic story in two and flipped it on its head, so that what seems like the denouement closes the first act, leaving the backstory for the second. It’s a workable structure for this conventional tale that is only let down when the first act doesn’t leave enough meaningful questions for the second act to answer.
The play opens in a rural hovel in darkest Ayrshire where two young gangsters (Philip Cairns and Josh Whitelaw) are holed up with a journalist as hostage. Their not-so-genial host is Jim (Kern Falconer), a Scottish Old Man Steptoe, who dries old teabags for reuse and shares a bed with his mother. In turn, they are joined by their boss, MacPherson (Paul Samson), and the titular Glendenning (David Ireland), a Northern Irish hard case with a grievance. Foul-mouthed violence ensues, the corpse count rises and we get a cliffhanger which could equally have served as a finale. Had the show ended there, the audience might have felt short-changed time-wise, but they’d have had a fine stand-alone comedy drama.
Back for the second half, we find ourselves in the Glasgow flat of the journalist Bruce Wilson (Steven McNicoll) a few hours prior. The set is glorious, perfectly encapsulating a chattering class bachelor in mid-life crisis, down to the multi-CD changer and the Vettriano on the wall (“it’s actually by his cousin, who is cheaper”). It is gorgeously lit, too. In one scene, the two gangsters and hostage listen to an entire Simple Minds album (“a personal gift from Jim Kerr”), while the window light cast across the walls subtly changes in a wonderful rendering of an inner-city sunset.
In terms of plot, however, we learn little more about the other protagonists beyond the mechanics that brought them to the farmhouse and some incidental back-references. We’re introduced to gangster Dominic’s girlfriend (Joanne Thomson) and Wilson’s character is rounded out, but it all seems mere pre-amble to set up a slightly contrived but ultimately gratifying final twist.
As always in the crime genre, characterisation is key and director Mark Thomson has been able to build on solid foundations. Ireland steers clear of cliché as Glendenning, aided by having the lion’s share of witty lines. The tattoos and buzz cut carry menace, but it’s his unpredictability and idiosyncratic interests – like being an Aswad fan – that make the character, and Ireland is a great fit for the role. Samson, by contrast, is less well cast as MacPherson. He strikes all the right poses, but the mild manner and tone of voice mean the overall effect is more middle manager than mafioso.
On its own terms, this is an enjoyable crime caper well staged, but the lopsided plot and faithfulness to the genre contribute to a muted audience response.