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Un-Expecting

 
Richard Beck Review by Richard Beck 5 Published: 9 Apr 2026 A Play a Pie and a Pint Show Dates: 13 Apr 2026-18 Apr 2026

Inspiration comes in many forms for playwrights, and the experience of becoming a father was the perfect stimulus for Nathan Scott-Dunn to pen his latest drama and make his debut at Òran Mór with Un-Expecting, as part of A Play, A Pie and A Pint’s Spring 2026 season, supported by Creative Scotland.

Two powerful performers who deliver with unfaltering passion and sincerity

Speaking of the life-changing event and the play, he says, “Becoming a parent completely changed how I see the world and it made me think a lot about how we talk about parenthood in society, especially when it isn’t neat or planned. Un-Expecting is messy, lyrical and full of humour, but at its heart it’s about what happens when real life refuses to follow the fairy-tale version we’re usually sold.”

That’s it in a nutshell. It’s a simple story told by two characters on a specially constructed thrust stage that provides the up-close intimacy the play requires. It’s a functional, non-distracting, versatile set of plain black rostra with a couple of moveable, multipurpose black boxes and two neon strip lights either side of four translucent screens that enable silhouette scenes, courtesy of set and costume designer Heather Grace Currie. A standard glitter ball with associated lighting creates the disco scene where Scott (Cristian Ortega) and Jess (Cindy Awor) meet and exchange their first tentative words.

Scott is rather lacking in confidence when it comes to dancefloor social interaction, but when he sees Jess he can’t resist making a move. They end up nervously chatting on a bench outside, and clearly Jess has this planned better than Scott. They go back to her place, where they discover that he has forgotten to do one of the few things his father ever taught him: always go out prepared. With minimal risk assessment, the condomless night ensues, as does the surprise pregnancy.

Debates follow about what to do. We gain insights into the trials of carrying a child and giving birth, of dealing with other people’s opinions and managing coping mechanisms. Scott is reaching the end of his music degree in London. He’s desperate to graduate but also wants to be with Jess. Another issue is carefully woven into the story here. Parenthood comes with responsibilities. Scott was only six years old when his father left home, and he is determined to be a better, more responsible man than he was, so his time away weighs heavily.

Awor and Ortega are two powerful performers who deliver with unfaltering passion and sincerity, giving captivating credibility to their characters. The richness of his accent from Edinburgh and hers from Glasgow adds to the idiosyncratic, beat-poetry style in which Scott-Dunn writes. Rhymes abound in the verse-dominated script, and yet he is such a master of this style that it seems completely natural as a speech form: it’s just the way the characters speak. But it adds momentum, which, combined with the precise timing the actors possess, makes for a fast-moving story enhanced by lines started by one of them and finished by the other, and dialogue interspersed with direct address. There are many very funny moments of laugh-out-loud humour contrasted with several intensely emotional, tear-jerking scenes that together reflect the highs and lows of life.

Maximising the outstanding talents of Awor and Ortega, director Edoardo Berto has lifted this gem of a script off the page and managed the diverse elements of the play, its staging and the performances with focused clarity of purpose and cohesiveness to deliver an hour of joyous theatre.

Amir Nisi

Richard Beck

A graduate in theology and education, Richard acted and contributed to dance, drama and music productions throughout his teaching career. He joined Broadway Baby in 2014 and is now our Editor-in-Chief. He usually disappears to warmer climes for the winter to pursue his passion for travel.

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The Blurb:

A lyrical deep-dive through the chaos, comedy and consequences of two strangers hurtling into modern parenthood. 

A nightclub collision. A daft decision. A heartbeat caught between two strangers who can barely catch their breath.

Told in a pulse of beat-poetry, barbed humour and bruising honesty, Scott and Jess ricochet through tests, scans, scares and the kind of arguments you only have when everything matters.

They’re not a couple and this isnae a love story or a fairy tale. Just two people trying to step into a story neither of them feels ready for.

Funny, fierce and painfully human, Un-Expecting explores the messy reality of un-planned pregnancy and the identity of parenthood in today’s world.

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