Theatre
No Nothing, Oran Mor, Glasgow
Mary Brennan
FOUR STARS
Did poet Edwin Morgan and trades unionist Jimmy Reid ever meet, in real life? Maybe, or maybe not. But in this sparky, beautifully imagined two-hander - written by Alan Spence, pithily directed by Ken Alexander - they come together in the after-life. Moreover, though they died within days of each other in 2010, they're re-embodied in the prime of life, circa the early 1970's. Reid (Steven Duffy) is soon revisiting his glory days as one of the leaders in the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders dispute - the rousing rhetoric of his famous speeches rolling forth with pride and passion. Morgan (Kevin McMonagle) has recourse to lines from his Glasgow sonnets, and the memories shaded in to them. Soon, the two men are conjuring up episodes from their personal past,and from the politics of the time - that Scottish Devolution Referendum of 1979 is still a heartache, even in death, as are subsequent events under Thatcher, Blair and their successors.
What could be two dead men whingeing in disappointment is anything but. It's an invigorating celebration of how the famous poet and the political "man of the people" shared a gleeful affinity for words, not least as tools of their trades. Duffy, dark suited with a gloss of pawky swagger, harks after the grit and wit of Glasgow's working class. McMonagle, uncanny in his delivery of Morgan - soft and swift of voice, forever on the brink of wry amusement - matches Reid's reminiscences, adds to them with the Makar's philosophical-literary banter. "Not my style!" joshes Reid, but what is his - and Morgan's - style is the kind of visionary hope that does our hearts good in these electioneering times. Welcome, too, is Spence's return to the stage, offering intellectual brilliance in the guise of affable humour and humanity.
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