Riveting from the first sentence to the last, the words ‘drop’, pin’ and ‘hear’ came straight to mind. Mark Hannah’s representation of delivery driver Alan, London meteorology (and holiday romance victim) student Liam and ageing Embra senior Maureen faultless in every respect. A trip to the Hibs Supporters Club (venue 449) on Sunnyside is off the beaten track for Fringe-goers but the daunder will be well worth it, if only so you can say ‘I saw Mark Hannah before he was…’
He plays all three characters intersecting at different points on the same day and it’s Alan’s story that sets the scene, adrift from his partner and desperate to see his daughter Erin perform at St Giles Cathedral. He’s had a rough morning having to deliver a mattress to an address near Peffermill he has his own reasons for wanting to avoid. Marooned in his van at the lights on The Mound by a Just Stop Oil protest, will he make it? Bewitched by a sweet-voiced girl he met in Greece, Liam’s arrived for the week to pursue the relationship, but will things work out? Maureen’s the longest, but failing, memory of the three, and has been heartlessly engineered out of her house into a care home but someone’s come to see her and bids her leave with him. What effect will it have upon her bruised soul?
For a first night this was notable for not one obvious kink that needed straightening out, negligent not to mention director Fraser Scott who’s credited with re-writing and re-drafting Mark’s original work. The switch between characters and accents was flawless, the passion, energy and intensity showing what one actor, with no more props than a chair, bag, cigarette and disposable camera is capable of given good writing and performance.
It’s easy to bemoan the lack of ‘reg’lar folk’ at The Traverse for what is often enlightening, entertaining and educational fare during the year, but tonight it’s the reverse, hoping that some of the that audience make their way down Easter Road to support this brilliant piece of Edinburgh theatre, you have until the 12th. Just mind an’ bring some tissues, there’ll be mear ‘an sumthin’ in your eye at the end.
Reviewer: Roger Jacobs
Reviewed: 5th August 2024
North West End UK Rating:
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