Lorna Irvine reviews Princess for a Day, by Jack Dickson from this season's A Play, a Pie and a Pint.
It's an all too familiar scene—two Glaswegian lads, sat on a park bench, nasally bantering on everything from the Jimmy Savile scandal to how giraffes sleep- but this sharp play by Jack Dickson is like an unpicking of scabs, revealing the vulnerability of both young men.
Malkie (Johnny Austin) is on the make, wearing a placard bearing the slogan "WAR WOUNDED IN AFGHANISTAN''. It seems unlikely he has ever left the East End of Glasgow. His best friend Raz, played by Steven Ritchie, is babysitting little Princess, who is gradually revealed to be his baby girl to an ex- girlfriend.
Dickson's script never dips in consistency, his witty, well-observed dialogue so effortless from both actors that it is as though we are eavesdropping and Peter Arnott's astute direction keeps things nicely paced. Cat Grozier also does excellent vocal work as the crying, gurgling baby.
The awful slow-burning realisation of the men's drug habit is grim indeed- they shoot up into arms and feet, sharing a syringe, before 'Uncle' Malkie cradles the little girl in his arms, promising her the world, a safe world with limitless possibilities and achievements. The father, meanwhile, is passed out.
As the two men falteringly vow to get clean sometime soon, the bonds of friendship and family have never seemed more poignant, nor fragile.
Hilarious, achingly sad and true, with no real answers.
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