Theatre
Outside In
Oran Mor, Glasgow
Mary Brennan
three stars
Outside In – with a bit of inside out, upside down and back to front added in because, folks, this is an amiably daft comedy about misfits. Jay (Cristian Ortega) has agoraphobia: the world outside is a no-go area for him, his panic attacks increasingly stoked by the horrendous news stories he sees on television. Coco (Martin Quinn) is a wannabe hard man: he’s actually more of a fall guy – he’s the eager wee stooge who gets lifted by the police while the real offenders get away. On this occasion. Coco has been landed with some serious criminal evidence: a gun. This is the gun that pops, unannounced, through Jay’s letterbox and ushers in one of those goofy ‘odd couple’ scenarios where plot always plays second - make that third or fourth - fiddle to the fast’n’funny banter.
Writer Chris Grady’s background in TV and radio sketch-shows and sitcoms is well to the fore here, creating larky set pieces where Quinn’s conversational gambits - often verging on the ridiculous - prompt Ortega’s wary-nervy Jay into laddish bonding over things they have in common. The whole Game of Thrones camraderie is hilarious, but escapist fantasies can’t keep PC Kayleigh (Katie Barnett) from arriving on the scene with some awkward questions about a local shooting. As the improbability factor cranks up several gears, the live-wire cast - astutely overseen by Sally Reid in her directorial debut - suspend their own disbelief and keep the laughs coming. There is a dark and somewhat predictable twist but who’s kidding who? Jay and Coco are now a double act, any falling out is only a springboard for the next falling in again. The Play, Pie and Pint audience clearly took both clutzes to their hearts: might there be more capers, once Coco has got Jay out of his shell, and out of the house?
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