This piece is an adaption of Alexander McCall Smith’s popular novel which follows the lives of the residents of 44 Scotland Street. The audience are led through the trials and tribulations of the characters, from Angus campaigning to stop his beloved dog from being put down by the authorities, to Elspeth losing her job as a teacher for pinching a naughty child’s ear.There was not a lot according to Bertie however. Perhaps I clung too much to the title of the show, but I wanted to know more about what was going on in Bertie’s head, as he was the most interesting character. I found the personal lives of the other characters far too clichéd, but Bertie’s family were complex and amusing. I yearned for the scenes with Bertie’s psychoanalyst, Dr. Fairbairn, to be developed, but they were not very fruitful. Every time I felt we were going to dive into Bertie’s brain to reveal what he was thinking, the action was whisked off elsewhere. This left me a bit grumpy and at times confused with where the piece was going. The script needed to weave the separate stories of the residents at 44 Scotland Street together - unfortunately it did not.The flyer says the performance is staged as a promenade. We received no information on where to sit/stand/walk. Once we’d stood around dazed a while, front of house began unsuccessfully herding us like cattle. This disgruntled the audience, so they all just sat down on the floor in the middle of the room, leaving space for action around the outside. After twenty minutes of spinning around on my bottom to trying to see I gave up and sat with my back to some of the action. The promenade idea had failed.The actors remained focused despite a few technical difficulties. All the performers were strong, especially those who played Bertie and his mother; however the weakness of this production is the script and staging decisions. Overall, Bertie’s story is a great one when you isolate it from the rest of the script - with more development this production could get better with time.
