Theatre
The Scurvy Ridden Whale Men
Oran Mor, Glasgow
Mary Brennan
two stars
There are harrowing tales aplenty – some fact, some fiction – about Scottish mariners who signed up in the 19th century (and in truth, for decades afterwards) to crew the whaling ships bound for Baffin Bay and the icy reaches of the Arctic Ocean.
In Steven Dick’s three-hander, The Scurvy Ridden Whale Men – premiered as part of A Play, a Pie and a Pint’s celebratory 500 season – there are flashback scenes where the crew of the doomed Viewforth are seen slowly succumbing to the freezing temperatures, starvation and scurvy.
The vessel is being crushed by the surrounding ice: only two men – the conscience-stricken Captain Reid and callow young lad Peter – will be rescued. But, as Dick’s plot would have it, there appear to be more Awful Dangers lurking on-shore when they fetch up in Mrs Humphrey’s house-cum-hospital in Stromness, Orkney.
This is where – despite all clearly committed hands piling in, on deck – this play founders on the rocks of heavy-handed comedy, over-egged religious fervour and a last-minute twist in the narrative that suggests Mrs Humphrey is no Florence Nightingale nor indeed a fisherman’s friend...
It’s true that Mrs Humphrey doesn’t want her recuperated patients to leave, especially if they intend going back to whaling. Janette Foggo has the wifie’s traits off pat: a nippy sweetie, delivering doubts and cynicism, when Peter (Ronan Doyle) brings his recently acquired faith in the Almighty into every exchange – and she’s a decidedly girlish flirt when attempting to make the Captain (Billy Mack, providing the necessary depths of survivor’s guilt) into a landlubber and her bidie-in.
The cast negotiate the recurring troughs valiantly but the histrionic stushie over Peter’s missing bible is over-stretched, with Doyle, and the character, painted into a gibbering, raving corner. It founders, folks – Peter’s gossipy suspicions about the true fate of Mrs Humphrey’s dead kin are merely red herrings with no meat on the bone.
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