Theatre
The Thinkery
Oran Mor, Glasgow
Mary Brennan, three stars
IT’S definitely summertime, folks – your lunchtime pie and pint at Oran Mor now come with a mini-musical instead of the usual play. First up in this seasonal change of genre is The Thinkery. Written by Brian James O’Sullivan, directed by Stuart Hepburn, it’s based on Aristophanes’ The Clouds – do not fear, however, that it will all be Greek to you... There’s a Glesca’ turn of phrase in the dialogue while the cast of four – led by that past-master of panto-japery, Jimmy Chisholm – are undaunted by high-minded themes of moral philosophy and self-improvement and readily embrace low comedy.
According to the on-stage columns, and the white swagged costumes, we’re in the ancient Greece of Socrates and his seat of learning, The Thinkery. In fact the problems facing Strepsiades (Tom Urie) are recognisably of our own time.
His son Pheidippides (Nathan Byrne) is a waste of space: he squanders money he doesn’t have, is constantly bevvied up, and now there’s an angry loan shark at the door demanding payment. What’s a lonely, widowed father to do? He sends the irresponsible lad for a ‘detox’ – as in life-coaching and habit-changing lessons with Socrates. Six characters and only four performers means there’s some doubling of roles: Sandra McNeeley is both household slave and Strepsiades’ revenant wife – quick-thinking, can-do women, both – while Chisholm combines the menacing loan shark with the lofty, dogmatic Socrates, shifting character in the twitch of an eye patch (creditor-mode) or the donning of an academician’s laurel wreath and playing both for scripted (and unscripted) laughs.
“Never underestimate the power of a rousing melody,” is one supposedly Socratic bon mot and indeed, there are lots of them in this show, all delivered with harmonious gusto by the cast. Maybe not quite The Clouds as Aristophanes intended – but the silver lining is, this perusal of ethical values and moral choices remains entertaining.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here