Lorna Irvine reviews a new play performed in two halves.
Cargo 1: In a fast food joint, two strangers meet, bound by a mysterious man called Gavin, and share a stilted conversation which descends into uneasy flirtation and then...disaster. The woman, Sol (Sharon Osdin), is hiding a secret and the man, Tony (Eric Robertson), places a suitcase onto the table, which contains something which may or may not destroy the planet. Churlish as it would be to draw comparisons with a certain North Korean politician, the implications are serious, making both complicit in part of a game in which the rules are bent out of shape.
There are some nice touches, such as Julieann Crannie's choreography (to OMD and Tommy Dorsey!) and frenetic performances from both- particularly Robertson, who looks dangerously unhinged as the alleged ''teabag sniffer'' scientist, but the mawkish sentiment about daisy chains and boathouses in the lovers' backstory drags the piece down, and the narrative arc comes a little unstuck in the centre as the roles blur. Still, a watchable, witty piece with a lot of verve.
Far better is Cargo 2, which deals with the kind of modern middle-class malaise that would be tiresome were the two lead characters not so likeable. Tommy (Ian Petrie) works as a night-watchman in a cargo freight company. He is ineffectual, a bit weedy, with visions of a forthcoming apocalypse and bicycles for everyone. His pregnant girlfriend Natalie, wonderfully played by Ailsa Courtney, is more pragmatic and almost maternal to him as she comes into his work to bring him sandwiches and scrutinise his role in the company, of which she is having doubts.
Into this typically domestic scene to unravel the cosiness comes an unnamed man (Chris Lawrence), who works for Tommy's dodgy-sounding boss and has a dark agenda and a history of violence. It soon becomes clear that the freight containers are holding more than widescreen televisions. An examination of masculinity in crisis ensues, with a twist that may be predictable but is no less affecting for that.
Writer Cormac Quinn's blending of styles in each half of the play is an interesting approach, and he excels at expressing the myriad ways in which we struggle to really know or understand one another- even our closest friends and partners.
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