Alex and Brian: a couple of Motherwell lads going nowhere. Until, that is, Alex unfairly gets the sack from the sports shop where he works and, in a moment of drunken retribution, ‘borrows’ a surfboard from the window display and press gangs Brian into joining him in a clapped-out Lada heading for Thurso – Surf Capital of the North! Read more …
But unfortunately for our two heroes, this particular surfboard happens to be the prized possession of the shop’s owner, the psychotic gangster Binks. And no sooner does Binks discover the theft than he's donning the leathers, kick starting the Suzuki – and beginning an epic pursuit.
En route to Thurso, travelling the winding single track roads, Alex and Brian expect to encounter the Scotland of the history books. Instead, they discover a land they never knew existed. There's bothy culture, castles and ceilidhs, and spectacular landscapes, right enough; but digital crofters, Heilan' hippies, mystic surf gurus, installation artists, Ukrainian mariners and Canadian geologists? Where did they all come from?
The end result is one of the most significant pieces of post-modern populism and end of the century enlightenment to have roared out of our own back yard.
Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Pitlochry from Thursday July 17, 2014, until Friday October 17, 2014. More info: www.pitlochry.org.uk