It’s back! Between Tuesday 21 September and Saturday 23 October, the Traverse Theatre is hosting its third season of the fantastic lunchtime theatre event, A Play, A Pie and A Pint, jointly presented by Òran Mór and Paines Plough.
For five weeks, five brand new plays by some of the UK and Ireland’s top writers will be performed at the Traverse following World premieres at Glasgow’s Òran Mór. Following the season at the Traverse, these five co-productions will tour to the Live Theatre in Newcastle, the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry and Bewley’s Café Theatre in Dublin, taking A Play, A Pie and A Pint to more people than ever before.
This season features some of the most high profile writers to date including April De Angelis (Amongst Friends, Catch); David Harrower (Lucky Box, 365, Blackbird, Kill the Old, Torture Their Young); Marie Jones (Stones in His Pockets, A Night in November); Linda McLean (Riddance, strangers, babies) and Gary Owen (The Shadow of a Boy, The Drowned World).
The season opened with Marie Jones’ black comedy Fly Me to the Moon. It shows us Francis and Loretta, two low paid care workers who have as one of their clients, Davy McGhee.
Davy is a stroke victim. His lonely life has been reduced to visits by the district nurse, meals on wheels and these two carers. His only highlights are his reading form, his daily bet and his love the music of Frank Sinatra.
Francis and Loretta get on with their job in a pragmatic way while trying to figure out how they can take the family to Alton Towers or manage to go to a hen night in Barcelona.
An unfortunate set of circumstances throw the hard-up women in to a maze of moral confusion as they make an escalation of misjudgements, becoming mired in a situation more informed by CSI rather than true cunning.
Katie Tumelty is convincing as the detached, grounded and opportunistic Francis who makes the cannons for the more hapless Loretta to fire. Abigail McGibbon’s portrayal of panic was palpable and very funny as the consequences of their errors pile up.
This short play with its convincing dialogue was tightly performed by the two women and well worth seeing and supporting.
Tickets are £12 and include a play, a pie and a pint of Caledonian IPA or McEwan’s 70 Shilling, 175ml glass of wine, regular glass of Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Lemonade or Orange Juice).
Next week’s play will be In the Pipeline by Gary Owen Tues 21 – Sat 24 September (1pm)