Having this year reached the notable landmark of their 500th new production, the team behind the award-winning lunchtime theatre phenomenon that is “A Play, A Pie and a Pint” i…
Alan McHugh has played in enough pantomimes down the years to ensure It’s Behind You! reeks of authenticity, albeit the heightened theatrics of the genre. Set in the cramped dressing room of some impoverished provincial theatre – the star on the door is cut out of yellow paper – this two-hander proves to be a more subtle character piece than you might first expect, given the opening clash of Shakespeare’s Macbeth and a rubber chicken...
The comedic tone of David Weir's Confessional is clear from the start; as Schubert's beautiful Ave Marie fades into silence, "Good Catholic" Kevin—or, as he puts it, the "Oldest Alter Boy in Christendom"—is reluctantly about to confess his sins to Father Ignatius, who's also his uncle...
Three-quarters of a century on, there are still stories of the Second World War that aren’t as well known as they should, but Stuart Hepburn’s new play—while promoted as telling the untold story of Churchill’s politically-expedient “sacrifice” of the 51st Highland Division, which he ordered to remain in France post-Dunkirk in order to keep France in the fight against Nazi Germany—is in actual fact a relatable “coming of age” story...
“I’m so excited”—that iconic 1982 hit by the Pointer Sisters—is an apt intro to a show with a predominantly female audience that’s already wound up to have a good time...
18 years after her death, “blue-eyed soul singer” Dusty Springfield remains many things to many people—not least a gay icon, thanks to her emotional fragility and memorable OTT “look”—the panda-eyed make-up, the big-wigs and flowing dresses—which has inspired generations of drag queens...
A risk when putting any historical figure on stage—let alone a writer and thinker of the calibre of Dr Samuel Johnson—is that using their own words makes them appear less a dramatic character and more a walking, talking Wikiquote...
There’s no hanging about with Morna Pearson’s Walking On Walls; when the lights come up, we see a bespectacled woman observing a man who’s bound on an office chair, tape across his mouth and traces of blood on his forehead...
It’s fitting, in the weeks running up to the latest Arctic Circle Assembly (running from 7-9 October in Reykjavik, Iceland) that the team behind A Play, a Pie and a Pint opted for a new work focused on human exploitation of the Arctic...
Glasgow-based Birds of Paradise Theatre Company continues to lead the way in producing theatre that’s fully accessible to people with physical and/or sensory impairments, both as creators and audiences...
It’s not immediately obvious where Second Hand is located; Jonathan Scott’s set for this latest production in the Spring 2016 season of “A Play, a Pie and a Pint”, at Glasgow’s Òran Mór, feels like a bedsit – cramped, dull and worn round the edges...
Pantomime is arguably the most self-aware and self-mocking of theatrical forms, with the most successful shows seeing cast and audience mutually shattering any metaphorical fourth wall with what was once called gay abandon...
Richard Crane's latest play takes as its subject the life of Vlad the Impaler, famous Romanian prince and the inspiration behind Dracula, blending folk songs, the recreation of key scenes, and magical realism to give a sense of the life of this historical figure...
Alan Spence is not the first to imagine a meeting between two famous people from different worlds, though there’s certainly a whiff of wishful thinking in this thoughtful, if a tad predictable bringing together of trade unionist Jimmy Reid – apparently the only “Communist” which moralistic commentator Malcolm Muggeridge would have trusted as Prime Minister – and the first Scottish National Poet, or Makar, of modern times, Edwin Morgan...
It’s fitting that, this Eastertide, a resurrection of sorts lies at the heart of this latest collaboration between Glasgow’s Òran Mór and Edinburgh’s Traverse theatre. Unlike the original, however, its consequences swing violently between the comic and the brutal, and seldom in a way that uses one to build on the other...
Acclaimed playwright Alison Carr's latest offering, Fat Alice, opens on a familiar scene. Peter (Richard Conlon) admits to Moira (Meg Fraser), his girlfriend of ten years, that he still hasn’t told his wife about her...
Take the Rubbish Out, Sasha is the first of three plays in this season of A Play, A Pie and A Pint from Russia and Ukraine, curated by playwright Nicola McCartney who also directs this production...
After a very strong debut with Squash in last season’s A Play, A Pie and a Pint, playwright Martin McCormick returns with his second play, The Day the Pope Emptied Croy. Set in the early 1980s, it follows the fortunes of two teenage boys as they prepare to run away to Newcastle...
Leviathan, produced in association with Sherman Cymru and the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh, is among the best plays to appear on the Òran Mór stage this season or last. The dialogue is rich with both high-flown and naturalistic poetry, the performances are perfect, and the whole thing is imbued with such a gentleness of heart that it allows you to travel through its distressing subject matter without being broken by it...
Lifesaving is an entertaining and surreal hour of theatre which focuses on the lives of two teenage siblings, Sandra and Jamie. Although the younger, Sandra has always looked after Jamie because he was born with the cord around his neck so his mental age is younger than his physical age...
Mrs Barbour's Daughters centres around Mary, an elderly blind woman who refuses to move out of her tenement flat and into her niece's home. Throughout the play, she continually refuses to engage with the present, preferring instead to dwell on her past – an unsatisfactory life lived in the shadow of her political activist older sister...
Rona Munro's comedy drama, originally produced for Radio 4 in 2008, tells the story of a period in the life of Walter Scott when he was tasked with commissioning a kilt for King George IV to wear on a controversial visit to Scotland...
The Happiest Day of Brendan Smillie's Life opens on sweet, strange Brendan (Ross Allan) who, with the aid of labelled paper plates, is attempting to design the optimal buffet arrangement...
Flower, Bird, Wind, Moon is an account of what happens when “our man” (Òran Mór veteran Billy Mack) spends four weeks in Japan.He’s there to learn about Japanese Noh theatre but, along the way, also comes to understand his own troubled personal situation better...
Hooray for all Kind of Things tells the true story of Icelandic stand-up comedian Jòn Gnarr’s decision to run for office in the Reykjavík mayoral elections of 2010. Gnarr, along with a group of fellow artists, decides that - as a response to the financial crisis and the resulting political apathy - he will form the Best Party, with the stated aim of making life more fun for Icelandic people...
They say that, while you can choose your friends, you can’t choose your family; even when you pick a partner, you have no say about the family that comes along with them.So, although the always-knitting Kitty has known Sylvia and Alison since they were young girls, she had no choice in them becoming “family” when they married her two sons...
As an ongoing celebration of –and opportunity for –new playwriting talent, A Play, a Pie and a Pint – originated at the Òran Mór in Glasgow's West End – has decided to mark its 350th production by celebrating its international reach...
Men – especially working class men from the West of Scotland – are not known for expressing their emotions, instead hiding behind either brutish silence or dry humour. Davie is very much in the latter camp, even taking supposed insults as compliments...
In a departure from its usual format, A Play, a Pie and a Pint this week plays host to (and co-commissioned) Theatre Uncut 2014, a political theatre company producing short plays as political activism...
Flying with Swans focuses on three women, all now well into retirement, who reignite their old tradition of taking the ferry to watch the arrival of the whooper swans as they migrate...
Andy Duffy’s new one-man play is a psychological drama following the life of a stock market trader during the economic crash. The central character narrates as both his personal and his professional lives experience colossal highs and tragic lows, not least the literal car crash with which the play opens...
Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters focuses on three refined and cultured young women—Olga, Maria and Irina—forced to relocate to a rural province because of their father's work...
Lesley Hart's latest play begins when Health and Safety Officer Lyssa is disturbed from her work of securing a wedding marquee at three in the morning by Buddy, the alcoholic brother of the bride...
Lesley Hart's latest play begins when Health and Safety Officer Lyssa is disturbed from her work of securing a wedding marquee at three in the morning by Buddy, the alcoholic brother of the bride...
It's Only Words tells the story of Mrs Moore, an old woman who has locked herself in a public bathroom while she thinks about her life and the choices she has made. Her most important memories come to life as she re-enacts her first meeting with her husband and all that happened afterwards...
The third play in Oran Mor's Autumn/Winter Season is a breath of fresh air, a nuanced and enjoyable picture of a thoroughly likeable character.Miss Shamrock is an air hostess, and she couldn't be more thrilled about it...
A thorough, measured account of a key moment in the history of Ireland, this opening production in the new run of “A Play, a Pie and a Pint” at Oran Mor in Glasgow’s West End, makes up in skilled delivery what it lacks in clarity...
Des Clarke is one of the most popular comedians working in Scotland today. He is known to many as host of the Capital Breakfast Show and star of the Kings Theatre panto.Des is also a familiar face on our television screens and has fronted high profile shows like Children In Need, STV Appeal and SMTV...
The slightly wicked godmother of Scottish comedy returns to the Glasgow international comedy festival to say the things you think but can’t say aloud. Current affairs, politics and stories so outrageous they are barely believable, the over friendly cleaner with the razor sharp wit is back and this time she’s brought her comedian daughter Ashley Storrie… again...
Multi award winning comedian Rob Beckett has extended his national tour due to outstanding demand. Rob and his trademark grin will be travelling across the country with his highly anticipated debut UK tour...
You just know that any show that begins with a bald man in a kilt gyrating camply to Madonna with a male audience member is going to be a winner. From the moment Craig Hill bounced onto the stage he had the audience’s attention and at no point throughout the course of the show did he lose it...
At a time when high-profile comedy seems frequently to constitute pointing out things that people do, Richard Herring’s satirical wit and eye for originality – not to mention his love of an art-form that only ten consecutive stand-up shows can demonstrate – elevates him head and shoulders above the rest...