The Ironworks, Inverness, 3rd September 2011

THE first of this innovative series of lunchtime plays in Inverness, Handprints in the Snow, set a high benchmark for standards of writing and performance. Alas, “The New Purgatory” rarely came close to meeting them.

Director Ian Macdonald had not made allowances for the layout of the Ironworks, so that crucial parts of the action – such as the moment when Mac and Cat crouch down by their signal fire – took place out of sight of all but the front rows. The venue’s lack of subtle lighting didn’t help, either.

Donna Swanson and Peter Gordon

George Gunn’s script raised a few laughs at the beginning but was desperately uneven, requiring the two young actors to deliver undigested chunks of political rants, naturalistic dialogue and random allusions to Greek myth.

Cat (Donna Swanson) spoke entirely in the Caithness dialect; difficult, but not impossible to follow, except that in this case it was hampered by a filmic soundtrack played live on piano. Mac (Peter Gordon) was a zoology student given to sudden, decidedly unconvincing poetic orations.

Without the aid of the programme, it would have been difficult to follow the action at all. The New Purgatory contained the seeds of an interesting play; seeds which sadly did not germinate. But with “Play Pieces”, the food’s as much the thing as the play; the pies and pasta did not disappoint and this reviewer will not be alone in asking for more.

© Jennie Macfie, 2011

Links

• Play Pieces