Beginning in the East End of Glasgow in 1979 when major supplies of heroin first appeared on the streets (and Margaret Thatcher on the steps of Number Ten), stand up comedian and writer Jane Godley brilliantly spins a double take on a single life. A teenage girl faces the choice of whether to try heroin for the first time the point of yes and thence Godley traces the parallel lives of the woman who said yes and the woman who said no.
What is so clever about this piece is that things are never as clear cut as one might assume the pivotal decision would make them. The Jane who decides to say no, for example, does so only because shes afraid of her abusive husband who wouldnt tolerate anything controlling her other than him. The life she leads subsequently involves an almost claustrophobic devotion to the pub she runs with that husband, whose temper she has to learn to avoid and eventually control.
The Jane who say yes at seventeen spirals into a life long dependency on heroin, yet even here there is dark humour, as when we learn that the best thing about rehab is the magical first hit on getting out.
Godley proves herself a phenomenal actress, the two personalities beautifully delineated and equally sad and funny. The look drug-raddled Jane gives a member of the audience as she quietly asserts Im a person is devastating in its sadness and bravery. The Jane who says no finally gets her now tamed husband to create her a big tinted window in the front of the pub. What she sees through that window at the shows climax is a real surprise and a perfect twist in the tale(s).
The show is being used by social work departments to highlight the dangers of drug abuse. I suggest it also a masterclass in how to put together a one person show.
