Anna Burnside reviews the latest offering from A Play, A Pie and A Pint.
Outskirts, a gay bar not very loosely based on Glasgow’s Bonjour, is an unlikely drinking hole for Mags. Her highlights, bob and business casual look out of place among the grunge, glitter and rude cocktails.
Dove, the bartender who has already introduced herself via a serious musical opener (performed into a mop) does not make her welcome. Her colleague Si, who favours the blue eyeshadow and beard combination, is less adversarial.
Together this unlikely bunch spill their guts and their sticky mixed drinks in an unhinged night of shame that includes spells, personal confessions and a mysterious package from Amazon. And several more songs.
If there is a single theme in this sprawling sort-of musical, it’s loneliness. This, the cast all agree, is not good.
But it’s hard to find a coherent thread in a baggy mix up that jumps from Mags’s unhappy family situation to Dove’s ex and back again, with Si playing occasional ukulele.
The music neither serves the plot nor adds to our understanding of characters and situations. Writer Bethany Tennick fails to nail down Mags’s motivation, and director Steve Lauder-Russell struggles to impose order on proceedings.
Shona White, as Mags, does as decent a job as the script allows, while Jake Stephen gives good diva as Si. Rosie Graham’s Dove is overegged, and would work much better with the volume turned down.
Bonjour has closed and, on this viewing, Outskirts is heading in the same direction.
Outskirts performs at Oran Mor’s A Play, A Pie and A Pint until April 4, 2026.
Photo by Tommy Ga-Ken Wan.
RSS