Zinnie Harris is an experienced and well established playwright and is currently an Associate Artist at the Traverse. This short play is on a stark set of a square of linoleum, an old kitchen dresser and two ‘contemporary’ style chairs.
Though we eventually find out that Mac (Sean Scanlon) and Jane (Anne Lacey) has moved to the U.S. there are no conclusive sign as to the time it is set in. There is a crackly radio which, with the furniture, hints at the ‘50s along with the concept of a stay at home wife. There are no mobiles or computers but the many references to the heat, to the sameness of everything and to the lack of things being able to grow, hint at a future when our environmental errors are the only things being reaped.
The play is inconclusive on other levels – a childless loving couple who argues; a sense of despair in the midst of stoical acceptance and even positivity in the form of the closing music by Louis Armstrong , and what does the mysterious visitor under the lino mean?
If you are prepared to suspend disbelief about some of the events, you will see elements of Beckett and even Ivor Cutler, though only in the surreal sense. This is not a funny play.
In spite of a slight sense of rawness about Tuesday’s production, this is a compelling piece that triggered much post performance debate.
This is the last play in this season’s A Play, A Pie & A Pint series at the Traverse which is scheduled to return here in the Autumn. Let’s hope with the Òran Mór mutton pies!
The ticket price of £10 includes a pie and a pint or glass of wine or soft drink. Show runs from Tuesday 30 to Saturday 03 April and starts at 1pm.