Lorna Irvine reviews 'a fine, bittersweet' production.
Jim, Gogs and Dan: three fishermen lost at sea. Kitty, Sylvie and Alison: three women waiting at home for word.
Words are all they have left, except for moping young mum Alison (Sarah McCardie), who has neglected her young son and can't be bothered with life. Sylvie (Joyce Falconer), her bolshy sister-in-law, wants nothing to do with such depression. Sylvie’s mother Kitty (Carol Ann Crawford) meanwhile is the anchor, knitting her days away, unwilling to enter into the ebb and flow of their bickering.
So the women cope as any family do--by drinking, giggling and talking, trying to avoid the obvious, into the wee small hours. Rivalry and petty jealousy emerges, and just then the police arrive--a body has been found...
Morna Young's dialogue has a heart-squeezing realism that never becomes too sentimental, and Crawford gives the strongest performance as the stoic matriarch, the calm despite her inner churning. Falconer and McCardie never play it too soapy, despite the potential for melodrama.
A fine, bittersweet yet no-nonsense study into what pushes families together--and what could easily pull them apart.
At Oran Mor until February 21 then at the Lemon Tree in Aberdeen until February 28.
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