Anna Burnside reviews a production with an unbalanced script but strong performances.
We first meet Flick and Pie at the start of their relationship. By the light of their mobile phones they send each other tentative messages, part flirtation and part hope.
Then we pivot to A&E, where Pie has a burst lip and their arm in a sling. Flick, already established as an anxious bean in the text exchanges, is understandably freaking out.
A bit more of this back and forwards later, it becomes clear that Pie has been injured by their father and that, now they are a couple, the differences in their family situations is an underlying tension.
Laila Noble, writing and directing, communicates this clearly and concisely. At one point Pie paces the floor of the waiting room and gives a lecture on class privilege, but otherwise the characters are well drawn and nuanced: Pie sarcastic with a side of chippy; Flick defensive with people pleasing tendencies.
The gears grind down with the arrival of Flick’s mother, Judy. She is played by Joanna Harte as a caricature middle-Flick class composite, the Margo Leadbetter of the Ottolenghi era. The script lets her down with weak jokes and unconvincing dialogue.
This unbalances the final third of the show as the comic relief crashes into the final dramatic revelations about Pie’s family situation.
It’s a shame because Stephanie MacGaraidh, as Flick, and Afton Moran, as Pie, both do a strong job. It’s their performances that carry the show and underline its ultimately uplifting message.
Performing at Oran Mor’s A Play, A Pie and A Pint until October 18, 2025.
Photo by Tommy Ga-Ken Wan.
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