Poker Alice, Glasgow review: 'full of unexpected twists'

Shock Horror, Perth Theatre ★★★

When the late David MacLennan launched the first Play, Pie and Pint season at Oran Mor, 20 years ago this month, no-one - including MacLennan himself - had any idea how things would work out. The first plays were presented in the big Oran Mor main hall upstairs, with Alasdair Gray on a scaffolding still working away at the venue’s famous murals and roof painting; and one of the first plays to appear was Greg Hemphill’s powerful, well-shaped monologue Poker Alice, starring young musician and actor Annie Grace.

It wasn’t long, of course, before A Play, A Pie And A Pint settled into its long-term home in the smaller night club space downstairs, and rapidly became a vital element of the Scottish theatre scene, producing more than 30 new short plays a year. And now, to celebrate its 20th anniversary, Annie Grace plays Poker Alice once again; a slightly more mature version of the play’s sole character, but one that still has audiences cheering her on, as she works out an unexpected way of rebuilding her life after the apparent demise of her feckless gambler husband.

Alice’s story is a complex one, in that it both acknowledges the dangers of gambling, and explores its powerful appeal - particularly when it comes to games like poker, which involve elements of skill and judgment, as well as blind chance; and it’s arguable that since 2004, the vast expansion of online betting has made us more wary of the dangers of the world into which Alice steps, when she decides to repair her fortunes by taking up the game, while avoiding her husband’s habit of losing his all his poker winnings at the roulette table, on his way out.

None of this, though, can detract from the wit, wisdom, and apparently effortless ease of Annie Grace’s performance, as she guides us through Alice’s evolution from bereft widow to prize-winning poker ace. The story is funny, compelling, full of unexpected twists, yet strangely empowering; and it reminds us that from its very first moments, A Play, A Pie And A Pint has been able to offer a rare combination of simplicity and spontaneity in staging new work, and terrific writing and performance, from the best of professional artists.

The current touring show from Yorkshire-based theatre makers Thunder Road is also a solo live performance; but here, instead of simplicity, it comes surrounded by a vast complexity of special devices and effects designed to evoke the darkest aspects of horror-film culture.

In Shock Horror - written and directed by Ryan Simons - company founder Alex Moran plays Herbert, a boy growing up in a haunted and decaying cinema run by his unhappy parents. His religious mother struggles with poor mental health and outbursts of violent rage, his father drinks, and tries to write a film script; and the reclusive family is also attended by a sinister old priest far too close to Herbert’s mother.

To say that this is a bit of a misery memoir is to understate the case, in other words. On a ruined cinema set permanently shrouded in deep, dusty darkness, Herbert is neglected, beaten up, and descends ever further into a horror-movie psychological underworld, while his parents - eloquently played by Joe and Chloe Carter - appear only on shreds of dimly-lit film, projected on the tilted screen behind him.

The set moves, flashes of light glare, strange sounds and creepy voices besiege Herbert, and towards the end a terrifying ventriloquist’s dummy makes an increasingly sinister appearance. And if the show involves far too much relentless misery and terror, drawn out for too long, to make for a good night out, there’s no denying the power of Thunder Road’s dark vision; or the sheer strength of Alex Moran’s lone performance, which leaves us longing for the police to break in, and release young Herbert from his demented family at last.

Poker Alice and Shock Horror both run until 7 September