Click here!

Men Should Weep

NTS's tour of the Scottish classic

Set amid the grinding poverty of Glasgow's tenements in the 1930s, Men Should Weep has long been a favourite with audiences.

Following the misfortunes of the Morrison family, Ena Lamont Stewart’s landmark play is a searing depiction of the hand to mouth poverty that working class people lived in at that time.

At the centre of the story is Maggie, the care-worn matriarch. Supported and hindered in equal measure by a network of neighbours and family - from whom it is impossible to keep any secrets - she does her very best in the worst of circumstances, always putting herself last.

More information on this production is available at www.nationaltheatrescotland.com.

The critical consensus

What’s left is a period piece that does little more than remind us that Britain has been broken for longer than we might have thought.

***(*)(*)Anna Burnside, The List, 21/09/2011

Like a frightened but hardened child peeking through an ajar door, McLaren's production lays bare the domestic dramas of our past before throwing the door open and letting its fury flow from within.

*****Scott Purvis, WhatsOnStage.com, 21/09/2011

Boxed inside Colin Richmond’s set on which furniture is flung around and doors slammed, the full claustrophobia of such a crowded household rings equally true.

****(*)Neil Cooper, The Herald, 22/09/2011

This is a generation of men whose only crime, as John cries out, was to be born into poverty. And as such, it cries out a chilling warning to us now, in far more comfortable times.

Thom Dibdin, The Stage, 22/09/2011

Disappointingly unambitious in style...it does, though, feature two memorable central performances, from a sweet and spirited Lorraine McIntosh as Maggie, and from Michael Nardone as her true love John, a good man almost broken by poverty, and unable to match his idea of masculinity to the humiliation of his fate, in ways that must reflect the story of tens of thousands of Scottish families, from the 1930’s to the present day.

****(*)Joyce McMillan, 22/09/2011

Graham McLaren's pacey production pulls no punches.

Clare Brennan, The Observer, 25/09/2011

Packing a powerful political punch (in the realm of gender as much as in social class), McLaren’s production is the unqualified main stage success that the NTS has been lacking for some time.

Mark Brown, Scottish Stage, 27/09/2011

The intervening weeks have seen it mature and harden into a stronger, more potent piece than it was at the outset – although it still has its structural faults as a production.

***(*)(*)Thom Dibdin, The Scotsman, 09/11/2011

It’s nearly 65 years since Ena Lamont Stewart’s Scottish classic was written, and director Graham McLaren shows how, crucially, it draws a causal timeline from now back to the economic frailties which shattered any chance of prosperity today.

****(*)Andrew, TV Bomb, 10/11/2011


Features about Men Should Weep

Interview: Graham McLaren, director

Mark Fisher, The Scotsman, 13/09/2011

Men Should WeepPhoto: Manuel Harlan

Where and when?

Citizens' Theatre, Glasgow from Friday September 16, 2011, until Saturday October 8, 2011. More info: www.citz.co.uk

Webster Theatre, Arbroath from Tuesday October 18, 2011, until Wednesday October 19, 2011. More info: http://www.webstertheatre.co.uk

Eden Court Theatre, Inverness from Tuesday October 25, 2011, until Saturday October 29, 2011. More info: www.eden-court.co.uk

His Majesty's Theatre, Aberdeen from Tuesday November 1, 2011, until Saturday November 5, 2011. More info: www.hmtaberdeen.com

King's Theatre, Edinburgh from Tuesday November 8, 2011, until Saturday November 12, 2011. More info: http://www.edtheatres.com/kings

Perth Theatre, Perth from Tuesday November 15, 2011, until Saturday November 26, 2011. More info: www.horsecross.co.uk

Comments: 0 (Add)

To post a comment, you need to sign in or register. Forgotten password? Click here.

Find a show


Search the site


Find us on …

Find us on FacebookFollow us on TwitterFind us on YouTube

Click here!