At the weekend I went to Inverness' once-a-month Play Pieces lunchtime theatre to see a play called "B-Roads" by Morna Young and David Rankine. Now, my opinion of the previous plays I've seen in this series has varied hugely – some have been distinctly dull – but I'd met Morna on the Scottish Book Trust's brilliant Playwriting Lab in Glasgow last month and she seemed to be a pretty impressive and creative person, so I was hoping for good things. And that's what we got. B-Roads is a psychological drama set in the aftermath of a car crash, following the relationship between the couple involved. It captured that feeling I love – and have tried to invoke in several of my own published stories (Dr Henderson's Thursday is a good example) – an unsettling, 'something’s not right, but I don’t know quite what' mood. You watch, form guesses, suspicions, which then seem more or less likely as the play progresses. And then at the end, all becomes clear. Love it. It's exactly the sort of thing I enjoy both writing and watching. And Morna and David, who also acted the piece, did it very well. Good use is made of the set, which gradually changes throughout. I really don't want to say much more about the play and inadvertently give anything away, but it is funny, intriguing, sad and horrifying from moment to moment. Powerful stuff.
Play Pieces is a one-time, catch it or it’s gone affair, but the play is on again in Lossiemouth on the 10th and 11th of October, and is well worth a look if you know where Lossiemouth is. In fact, if you don't, I'd recommend you look it up or borrow a satnav. Go see it! And you never know: my fingers are crossed that it gets a wider tour. I would go and see it again, because it's one of those plays that I've been looking back on and thinking about and seeing more in each scene in retrospect than I appreciated at the time. And I don't say that about many plays.
No comments:
Post a Comment