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Pitlochry Festival Theatre Studio - 16/09/23
Book and Lyrics by Pauline Lockhart | Music by Alan Penman | Presented by A Play, A Pie and a Pint
A new move by the ever- inventive Pitlochry Theatre sees a couple of productions from the now world famous ‘A Play, A Pie and a Pint’ based at Oran Mor in the West End of Glasgow. They feature the most new writing of any theatre in the UK, 35 new plays and runs for 42 week of the year. This is one of them. Ideally suited to the comfortable new studio this 45-minute, three hander production written by a collaboration of married couple Lockhart and Penman draws on their own experience of becoming adoptive parents. Performed with energy and excellent vocals by Kirsty Findlay, Chloe Hodgson, and Christina Strachan it focuses on the ability in this digital age for young people to get in touch with their birth parents and the repercussions. The loving adoptive mother, the love-hate relationship with best friend, the school behaviour, and the ongoing Angst of being sixteen. Having been involved as a trustee and a Governor of an Academy trust in a deprived area for several years these problems resonated. Several theatre goers from Grantown had enthused to me about this production and likewise the visiting audience from Glasgow gave it resounding cheer. The story is punctuated by songs echoing the feelings of the three protagonists, the best of which is ‘my Bestie’. This really brings the piece to life. It is a testament to the writers that they told the story in such a short time, although I was slightly confused as to who (a young man? her mother?) the young girl escaped to meet in London. In such a small space the neon lighting framing the door was slightly dazzling. But not to take away from the performances and the production, they were terrific. This will surely become a mainstay of senior school drama classes (are there any left?) or drama colleges. With expansion it has potential to be a full-scale piece in the age of issue-based musicals. An uplifting afternoon.
