Lorna Irvine finds much to like, and be disappointed by, in this offering at A Play, a Pie and a Pint.
There is a rich history of fictional senior citizens behaving appallingly which never fails to delight: Victor Meldrew; Maude in Harold And Maude, Katherine Hepburn and Henry Fonda flipping the bird in On Golden Pond and of course, Old Man Steptoe- all endearing and enduring characters.
So Sadie, played by Anne Kidd in Ann Marie Di Mambo’s Only the Lonely, should be wonderful- and she is, initially. Sadly, there is only so much f-ing and blinding that can sustain a character in a play which veers between soap (Di Mambo has previously written for Machair, River City and Eastenders) and high farce, occasionally bumping into sitcom but never really finding a comfortable niche.
A terrific Libby MacArthur, best known for Gina in River City, portrays selfish, exasperated Diane, a middle-aged woman struggling to cope with the demands of losing a job and caring for her increasingly forgetful father Tony (Finlay McLean).
Sweary Sadie, the aforementioned feisty OAP, acts as the comic foil, a lady who would rather watch The Sopranos and flirt with the upstairs neighbour than be mumsy. When her timid son Jim (Alan McHugh)meets Tony in a chance encounter after both he and his car get lost ‘somewhere near the Tunnocks factory’, the dysfunctional families are forced together to scrutinise the directions their lives are taking- cue scrapes, misunderstandings and familial power struggles.
Shades of 70s-styled homophobia and broad humour really don’t help here and the narrative wheezes asthmatically on until its predictable conclusion- a shame, as both direction from Liz Carruthers and the cast are fine, given such material.
The device of turning cushions and pictures over to differentiate between homes is a nice touch- and fair play to anyone who can get Tunnocks product placement in. Yum.
RSS