TO say that the joint was jumping is an understatement.
All of Albert Drive, it seemed, had turned out in force, making events at Tramway feel like a beezer come-all-ye family affair. A marker, surely, of how effective this whole project about the neighbourhood – initiated and sustained by Glas(s) Performance – continues to be. Folk were crowding in to Tramway 5, intrigued to look at – and listen to – the work produced by the project's commissioned artists (which you can catch up with until August 11). Tramway 4 was wall-to-wall with smiley happy diners who'd dropped in for the shared meal. And in Tramway 1, over the weekend, there was the live performance that brought a group of local people on-stage to talk about stuff that was particular to them, and to Albert Drive, but which unerringly reached out and touched all of us, no matter where we live.
As a film backdrop wheeched us, at speed, along the full length of Albert Drive, some 20 voices – young and old, some male (but mostly female), long-time residents and newbies, all representing the rich cultural diversity of the locale – came together in a tapestry of memories, questions and humorous interactions that asked "who is my neighbour?", while gently acknowledging the assumptions, the tensions, the unspoken curiosity and indeed the ignorance that can undermine a community's spirit and pro-active energy. Profound issues, but woven with an astutely light touch into a merry, genial display of pride in place – Albert Drive – and the cultural mix that characterises it.
As wee weans in the audience chipped in – babies wailed, toddlers roamed – the classy cast never faltered, bonded in a mission to remind us how the give and take of neighbourliness is the bedrock of our society. Unstintingly honest, hugely moving. I wasn't the only one in tears long before the end. If People Make Glasgow, this project puts the best kind of flesh on the bare bones of that slogan.
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