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Joining the proud home crowd which packed an airless room in the Crowne Hotel to cheer along Lanarkshire’s Alan Bayley and his cast’s opening night was like watching a one-sided game of football.
Bayley has written and directed an edgy grown-up slice of Scottish thirtysomething soap opera.
Gary has a booming sport management business, a fancy west end flat and a star client poised for golfing greatness. But he can’t forget Allison, now married to his best friend and sex maniac Bob’s big brother. Then Allison bursts back on the scene and the plot thickens.
It is a funny, dense script, full of epigrams of the “Do I hear the familiar smack of buttock being kissed?” variety. Foul-mouthed, full-on and butch, golfer Meg is a gift to female actors; in fact, this play is full of rewards for every cast member.
But there is work to do: the play is 105 minutes long, at least 25 of which are repetition. If Bayley can close the yawning gaps between gags, he’ll have a genuine home-grown steamroller of a comedy on his hands.
James Mullighan
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