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Theatre listings > My Old Man. - Tour & World Premiere. Playwright - Tom McGrath. Director - Nicholas Bone. Lighting Designer - Sergey Jakovsky. Composer - Stephen Deazley. Company - Magnetic North (Scotland) Website. Cast - here . 2005 Tour Dates and Times - here . Seen to review at Tron Theatre Glasgow on 23 September 2005. Run Time - 2hours 40mins including an interval. Reviewer - Thelma Good. Disturbing glimpse. Tom McGrath's writing of his play My Old Man was interrupted in 2003 by his stroke. The play was affected by those experiences - the character Sam has had a stroke, his disjointed memories and his effect on those who take him in convey how odd and frail a human mind and attachments can be. McGrath maybe turning 65 but he's still experimenting here on the boundaries where it's hard to fully succeed. Rhona, Anne Maire Timoney is a hard bitten woman grudgingly giving Sam couch space on his discharge. Sam's grandson Neil is caught between helping his mother in her illegal, low scale business and keeping a wistful eye on the attractive young immigrant woman living next door in crowded conditions. With playing Alan Tripney Neil's fear of age and disability steadily softens faced with Sam's prickly, disabled but feisty old man, never spoken you see Neil's developing love. Sam, Frank Kelly, with his collection of disordered and not always compatible memories draws some sympathy but is set akilter by the comic old man routines and a dark uncomfortable streak of destructiveness the old man carries. Watching My Old Man you try to make sense of the world presented but it keeps dissolving in front of you. The appearance of Peter, David Ireland, in the second half pushes at the boundaries, is he just a casual pickup with a fantasy that he's a detective or are Rhona or Sam about to be hauled in? The oddness of dealing with a person after such a catastrophic event can be clearly felt and is heightened by giving Sam a daughter and a grandson he hasn't seen since Neil was tiny. Limiting the playing area for the actors is the cluttered set. The hospital bed up on a large raised stage is placed centrally just back from the middle, when the action moves to Rhona's house the sofa, and fridge are on little raised mini-stages and to one side a window and a grandfather clock with stairs leading to the upper floor. If you like your plays to be clear by the end you'll not be contented by this one. McGrath's play is unstatisfying, leaving you confused, - a bit horrified by some incidents, baffled or confused by others. It's a disturbing glimpse rather than an unnerving experience of the strange voyage to the final curtain as things begins to muddle themselves and the essential you slips from its moorings. © Thelma Good 23 September 2005 - Published on EdinburghGuide.com Cast - Sam - Frank Kelly, Paul/Peter - David Ireland, Rhona - Anne Maire Timoney, Neil - Alan Tripney. 2005 Tour Details of Play Theatre's production of Play . Tour begins 22 Sept - 1 Oct at 7:30pm Glasgow Tron Theatre 0141 552 4267. 4 Oct at 8pm Islay Bowmore Hall 01496 860 216. 6 Oct at 8pm Oban Corran Halls 01631 567 333. 7 Oct at 7:30pm Paisley Town Hall 0141 887 1010. 8 Oct at 7:30pm Edinburgh Musselburgh Bronton Theatre 0131 665 2240. 10 Oct at 7:30pm Stranraer Ryan Centre 01776 703 535. 12 Oct at 8pm Stirling macrobert 01786 466 666. 14 Oct at 7:30pm Aberdeen The Lemon Tree 01224 642 230. 15 Oct at 8pm Alness, Ardross Hall 01349 880 591. 18 Oct at 8pm St Andrews Byre Theatre 01334 475 000. 19 - 22 Oct at 8pm Edinburgh Traverse Theatre 0131 228 1404. Tour ends. Related Special Event at Traverse Theatre - Happy 65th Tom McGrath! - To celebrate and wish Tom McGrath a happy 65th birthday. Hear him interviewed by David Grieg, listen to other noteable playwrights speak of his influence on their own writing and see staged readings of extracts from his plays including The Hard Man and Animal. 22 Oct at 2pm - Phone Traverse Theatre Box Office 0131 228 1404 for further details. Theatre Editor, Thelma Good's e-mail is thelma@edinburghguide.com Although every effort has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the information presented in these pages, no responsibility can be accepted for any errors or omissions. Theatre listings >
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