The Jolly Fisherman – Buttercup, Underbelly, George Square
There is a certain irony in spending ten minutes wandering up and down George Square Gardens trying to find a play which turns out to be largely about our need to find a place to belong.
The Jolly Fisherman isn't actually inside the Gardens at all. Eventually I discover it outside, beside the box office, housed in what looks remarkably like a Portakabin. Perhaps accidentally, it is the perfect introduction to John Dinneen's thoughtful new play about place, identity and what happens when the buildings we invest with meaning cease to be ours.
At its centre are Alan and Amir, childhood friends growing up in a changing East London. The Jolly Fisherman pub becomes the physical point around which their lives, and eventually their differing ideas about belonging, revolve....