Anna Burnside reviews ‘a compelling piece of drama.’
Peter Manuel, one of the last men to be hanged in Scotland, had no redeeming features. The motley crew of illegal bookies, hard men, piss artists and other seedy characters that formed his milieu were hardly more attractive. Yet, in the hands of director Dominic Hill, Linda McLean’s hard-eyed adaptation of Denise Mina’s 2017 novel becomes compelling drama.
Before a word is spoken, we are back in the Glasgow of the 1950s. Policemen with demob haircuts smoke in Jen McGinley’s sepia-toned set, which becomes bar, courtroom and kitchen table with the lightest of changes.
Into this dreary, testosterone-drenched world steps the hapless William Watt, wrongly accused of murdering his wife, daughter and sister-in-law. Keith Fleming plays him as weak and petty, desperate for self-advancement, always struggling to catch up and put on his coat.
Watt, who later confessed to the killings, is led a merry dance by Manuel, brilliantly realised by a sullen Brian Vernel. He is a mostly miserable, manipulative presence, with flashes of the fantasist who tells police officers tall tales about his past as a spy, and the wee boy whose devout Catholic mother refuses to perjure herself for him in court.
Around Watt and Manuel swill small-time gangsters, barkeeps, family members and the police officers, lawyers and judge who saw the murderer swing. Between them the tremendous ensemble - Andy Clark, Martin Donaghy, George Drennan, Mary Gapinski and Robert Jack - seem to play a whole city.
It’s not easy to tell a story where everyone knows the ending. Here the clue is in the title. And Manuel’s grisly fate is never far away - a swinging square microphone, hanging centre stage, has something of the noose about it.
Director Dominic Hill’s regular collaborator, composer Nikola Kodjabashia, creates a clanging soundscape that brings menace and, when required, actual violence. So much more effective than fake blood. Hill keeps the movement between the trial and Manuel’s slippery machinations fluid, showing 360° of the squalid little story that, in the hands of so much talent, becomes a compelling piece of drama.
The Long Drop performs at Citizens Theatre until 20 June 2026. For further information, go to the theatre’s website.
Photo by Tommy Ga-Ken Wan.
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