"Of all human struggles there is none so treacherous and remorseless as the struggle between the artist man and the mother woman." Man and Superman, George Bernard Shaw. Read more …
Geoffrey Buncher is an art teacher. Until now his only meaningful relationship has been with his mother Edie, who doesn't want her 'wee man growing up too fast'. One day he reads in the paper that he's working in amongst the top 10 sexiest professions. He decides it's time for change.
Now Geoffrey is old enough to buy his own Ribena, and it's time to find himself a wife.
Written in Morna Pearson's trademark "lurid, post-modern Doric" (The Scotsman),The Artist Man and the Mother Woman is a wickedly funny, surreal portrait of a spectacularly dysfunctional relationship.
Although O’Loughlin fails to signal the enormity of individual actions, her smooth telling allows script and company to give space for mocking laughter - before throttling it and throwing it back in stunned silence.
Pearson’s text, brilliantly written in her local dialect of NE Scots, had the audience on board and roaring with laughter from the get go.
At once hilarious and appalling.
Failing, by turns, in both comedy and tragedy (even if succeeding in its affectionate parody of Morayshire vernacular), this play is a curious main stage choice for recently appointed Traverse artistic director Orla O’Loughlin.
It is subtly profound and intricate playwriting, blessed with confident, fresh direction which complements the wealth of ideas on offer.
Just as the play is settling in as an enjoyable enough, if heavily caricatured, black comedy, the plot does an abrupt volte-face that takes it into tabloid territory, and the sensational ending, when it comes, feels less tragic than a sign that the plot has run out of steam.
Orla O'Loughlin allows the strangeness to be constrained by an overly literal set, but her cast, led by Garry Collins and Anne Lacey, are superb, rooting Pearson's ear for Doric poetry in a disturbingly credible world.
O’Loughlin’s production is a triumph of brave, high-risk writing, magnificent acting and luridly heightened domestic design.
Acclaimed playwright Morna Pearson on The Artist Man and the Mother Woman
The Artist Man and the Mother Woman
Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh from Tuesday October 30, 2012, until Saturday November 17, 2012. More info: www.traverse.co.uk
RSS feed of Theatre reviews