Anna Burnside reviews a production with impressive parts but ‘struggles to work as a coherent whole’.
Diva Sian Silver, wearing what appears to be a disco ball, is giving her all to a big number celebrating her petty grievances with everyone she meets on her morning stroll.
Then the lights go down and she’s back in her dressing room. The 75-year-old deflates under the weight of her red curly wig, swigs vodka from a mug and tries to have a nap on her chaise longue.
Owing to a shortage of space, it has been chopped into a chaise short.
After considerable set up, a young version of Sian appears to illuminate her older self’s many disappointments and set up an Annie-based finale.
Maybe Tomorrow is the first play actor and musician Hannah Jarrett-Scott has written. It’s a bold attempt, but the tone is wildly inconsistent. It starts like panto, thanks largely to Brian James O’Sullivan’s strong book. After the opening spite-fest there’s an excellent number that uses repetition to huge comic effect. Elaine C Smith would struggle to do a better job than Liz Ewing.
Two gratuitous toilet gags add to the December feeling.
But then there’s a lot of plot about Sian waiting for her Daddy Warbucks and the surprise reappearance of her ex, now a successful producer who wants to put her in his new show.
This is the device that takes us straight back into Annie territory. Ewing - in an impressive and gutsy performance - appears in a dress that’s more Grayson Perry than plucky orphan.
Julia Murray also works hard, taking on three male roles as well as swapping into a sub-Julia Roberts wig as young Sian. Two of her characters fighting off-stage while she changes into a beanie hat and Bono glasses? No bother.
There are many individual elements to enjoy here - the performances, the songs, the Annie references—if you like that sort of thing. It just struggles to work as a coherent whole.
Maybe Tomorrow has finished its run at Oran Mor but performs at the Traverse Thetre until October 18, 2025.
Photo by Tommy Ga-Ken Wan.
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