Tron Theatre, 14 November 2008, and touring

Benny Young in The Tobacco Merchant's Lawyer

IT’S COMMON for writers of science fiction to travel to the future to tell us about the here and now. By contrast, playwright Iain Heggie has gone in the opposite direction, taking us to the Glasgow of 1780 to create a light-hearted play for today.

The Tobacco Merchant’s Lawyer is a monologue about a credulous lawyer, Enoch Dalmellington, who suffers his own personal credit crunch after investing in an ill-fated trade mission to Virginia.

While Dalmellington’s fortunes hang in the balance – and his daughter Euphemia remains steadfastly unmarried – Heggie delivers a funny running commentary on the changing state of the world by means of the prophetic visions of Mistress Zapata, a fortune teller much frequented by the lawyer’s house-keeper. Her ludicrous premonitions include the arrival of television, the birth of the motor car and the banning of cigarettes.

First seen as part of the lunchtime season A Play, a Pie and a Pint at Glasgow’s Oran Mor, The Tobacco Merchant’s Lawyer is a frivolous piece of fun that survives the transition to an evening slot thanks to the wit of the playwright and the subtlety of actor Benny Young (who replaces John Bett from the original production).

Heggie uses a technique favoured by Alan Bennett in his Talking Heads monologues that allows the audience to understand the character better than he understands himself. Young is wise to the conceit, presenting us with a man who is full of wide-eyed wonder at the world, quick to repress the expressions of irritation that pass across his face and quite unaware of being exploited by others.

When the man responsible for sinking Dalmellington’s fortune in the Caribbean offers to take over his debts – and his house – in compensation, the lawyer is put out at the thought of moving to the smaller upstairs rooms, but only the audience realises how much he is being ripped off by his supposed friend.

This and the offstage antics of his prudish daughter (“the principal vexation of my life”), her radical suitor and the strong-headed house-keeper ensure that the laughs keep coming.

Uncharacteristically for Heggie, better known for ribald comedies than educative homilies, the play also weaves in an informative history of Glasgow and its changing shape. It’s fascinating to learn that the site of Central Station was once the thriving village of Grahamstown, a disreputable place not even considered part of the city. Salient also to remember that Glasgow’s wealth derives from slavery and tobacco.

None of these details is laboured, however, in jolly production directed by Liz Carruthers that adds up to a breezily enjoyable piece of storytelling.

The Tobacco Merchant’s Lawyer is at the MacPhail Theatre, Ullapool, on 28 November 2008

© Mark Fisher, 2008