Leslie Black PhotographyAnnabelle strikes up an unlikely relationship with her dead husband's potty-mouthed employee, Jim. She begins to enter into Jim's un-finishing school, liberating her own voice through vulgarity, Annabelle gets herself heard.
A hilarious riff on language, class and communication, perfectly structured by Maxwell, and magnificently delivered by Joanna Tope and Scott Fletcher, in one of the most perfectly-tuned double-acts I’ve ever seen on a Scottish stage.
A Respectable Widow is sweet, warm and cuddly, in spite of the torrent of swear words.
Traverse artistic director Orla O’Loughlin’s production is smooth and pacey, and she neatly plays up the piece’s more serious themes while never losing sight of its often gloriously coarse humour. It’s quite a remarkable achievement to pack so much into 45 minutes – and to make it so wonderfully funny as well.
A great way to spend a lunchtime and one of the best Play Pie and a Pint’s to transfer to the Traverse.
Both Fletcher and Love make the very most of their roles, developing them believably throughout, and Orla O’Laughlin’s direction takes us sure-footedly from Jim and Joanna’s opening encounter to the play’s end.
In April Chamberlain’s new production, Anne Kidd is excellent as Annabelle and young Craig McLean an absolute master of comic timing and tone as Jim; in a perfectly-polished little gem of Scottish theatre that’s well worth remembering, exactly six years on from its first outing at Oran Mor, in 2013.
A Respectable Widow Takes to Vulgarity
A Play, a Pie and a Pint, Glasgow from Monday February 18, 2013, until Saturday February 23, 2013. More info: http://playpiepint.com
Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh from Tuesday February 26, 2013, until Saturday March 2, 2013. More info: www.traverse.co.uk
A Play, a Pie and a Pint, Glasgow from Monday February 18, 2019, until Saturday February 23, 2019. More info: http://playpiepint.com
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