Theatre reviews: Inexperience | Cry/Laugh

Inexperience, Pitlochry Festival Theatre ★★★★

Cry/Laugh, Oran Mor, Glasgow ★★★

Nothing will come of nothing, says King Lear, the subject of the next big show on Pitlochry’s main stage; but meanwhile, in the lovely studio theatre, leading Scottish playwright Douglas Maxwell sets out to disprove that proposition, in brilliant comic style.

His new play, Inexperience, is set in Maxwell’s beloved Glasgow, and tells the strange tale of Robin and Iris, a couple who first meet as students and - in a world of sensual indulgence - make the strange decision not to touch, or kiss, or have sex, but just forever to savour the delicious moment of tension and non-event before all of that happens, often with messy and unhappy consequences.

This strange moment of self-denial is Iris’s idea; she is fast-talking, heedless, troubled, and often carried away by enthusiasms of her own invention. Robin goes along with it, though; although it’s not until they meet again 30 years later that Iris - and the audience - begin to realise how far.

By this time, Robin is the chief clerk of Glasgow Sheriff Court, devoted to a life of procedural rectitude and moral cleanliness entirely shaped by this strange vow of abstinence; while Iris has led a rackety life, and is now accompanying a young friend accused of criminal damage during a climate protest. And their re-meeting triggers a hugely entertaining yet highly philosophical whirlwind of events, also involving Iris’s young friend Toni, and Robin’s pricelessly doleful and romantic junior colleague Arthur.

In Sally Reid’s fine production - with gorgeous movement by Vicky Manderson - all of this is captured with something close to perfection by Sandy Grierson and Adura Onashile as older Robin and Iris, with Sophie Fortune and Alexander Tait as all the other characters. Exactly what the play has to tell us is more difficult to say; something about how to value true joy in a world obsessed with instant pleasure, something about the power of idealised love and how to love without idealising, something about Scotland’s own long history of sensual restraint and denial, and where that sits now.

Whatever it is, though, it has intellectual depth, a glorious sense of humour, and a wonderful erotic energy; in a richly rewarding two hours of theatre that invites audiences to enjoy the complexity of the characters’ lives, and also perhaps to become more accepting of their own complicated journeys, through this strange and liminal 21st century.

Nay Dhanak’s Play, Pie and Pint drama Cry/Laugh, meanwhile, takes a leap back into history, to offer an insightful if sometimes tortuous 65 minute metaphor for our times. On stage are a Town Crier and a Jester, instantly recognisable mediaeval figures; but in a time of bad government and growing popular unrest, the Crier feels unable to serve the local King any longer, and takes himself on a journey to he knows not where.

The court jester, meanwhile, is sent off by the King to find a second sun, for use during an imminent solar eclipse; and the two leap around the stage telling us the stories of their respective journeys, which include a dizzying moment of time travel to the present day.

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There are some huge and obvious political resonances, as the posh puppet of a king tells the Town Crier he’s no longer needed, since the less the people know the better, and the Crier and Jester gradually conclude that there’s not much more to royalty than a bit of fancy fabric. James Peake as the Crier, and Morven Blackadder as the Jester, bring a wide-eyed, clown-like energy to the show, both daft and sorrowful.

And if some of the theatrical storytelling is a shade ponderous and self- conscious, the politics is never less than fascinating; in what plays like an English parable for our times, full of sadness and foreboding at the mess our rulers have created, and yet of stubborn belief that the people deserve better, and will one day demand it.

Inexperience is at Pitlochry Festival Theatre until 4 July; Cry/Laugh is at Oran Mor, Glasgow until 20 June.

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