Anna Burnside reviews a production with a script that’s ‘fresh and sparky’ that’s ‘something special’.
The water in question is the Clyde. The colours are Esme’s paints. She’s a final year art student, crippled by depression and anxiety, then deadened by the drugs prescribed to help her.
Harris, a wee guy in the big city, intervenes when Esme empties the medicine cabinet and gets to within a step of jumping in the river.
Writer Milly Sweeney starts familiar - young people with mental health issues, class, boy-meets-girl - then takes it in unexpected directions.
Esme and Harris do not meet and fall in love. Instead, she comes through the worst of times with the help of a mum who cleans the flat and pays for a therapist. Even her evil, fedora-wearing professor softens in the end.
Harris, played with huge charm by Ryan J Mackay, is slowly ground down by life as a human dishwashing in a Michelin restaurant. His mother is not in a position to pay for therapy when, traumatised by his brush with suicidal Esme, he can’t sleep. Harris spirals downwards while Esme finally gets her life together.
Molly Geddes, as Esme, has a hard job. A character who can’t get out of bed is not meant to sparkle on stage. But this means that, as she emerges from the depths, it’s a joy to see her mojo return.
Water Colour won Milly Sweeney the St Andrews Playwriting Award and was named best new play at the Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland. And rightly so. It’s fresh and sparky, addressing the key issues of Gen Z without trauma-dumping on the audience. The observation, the humour and the optimism all mark it out as something special.
Water Colour is part of the Traverse Theatre’s Travfest 26 and performs until 30 August 2026. For further details, go to the theatre’s website.
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