OSCAR Wilde regarded theatre as, “the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being.”

He was right. And more to the point, getting into a theatre allows for an escape from the world – and the February rain.

From today, you could be in the Spanish Pyrenees, or twirling around a ballroom wearing a sparkly frock, or soaring with sexagenarian super heroes.

How so? Well, the new season of Oran Mor lunchtime plays has kicked off in Glasgow. And for an hour, escape features heavily on the Play, Pie and a Pint menu.

As in other seasons, the bio-plays are being heralded. “The spring season will uncover the stories of real-life people, such as Scottish footballer, Rose Reilly MBE,” says a spokesperson.

“One play will feature singer Frankie Vaughan’s visit to Easterhouse in the 1960s and another will cover the unlikely friendship between the daughter of Lord Byron, Ada Lovelace and Fife-born Mary Somerville in the 1830s.”

Actors Lewis Howden, Irene Allan, Keith Fleming and Kim Gerard open the season in Camino. Sean Hardie’s play sees four friends take off on a treacherous six-day climb – gales, blizzards, snakes, bears, parasites and bandits – to reach the remote shrine of Santamaria Caramonte.

The shrine lies high up in the Spanish Pyrenees. But will their marriages survive the ordeal?

The following week features the story of teacher Penny who comes up with a unique survival tactic; the art of Complete Disengagement.

When the Penny Drops, by Catriona Duggan, sees the teacher explain her plan to the audience. Michele Gallagher, Simon Donaldson and Jo Freer star.

On February 24, writing team Kate Donnelly and Clare Hemphill – who also perform, alongside Garry Sweeney, are back at Oran Mor with Lessons in Love.

The plays tells the story of life-long friends Sarah and Jackie, but the friendship is seriously compromised when Jackie’s erstwhile fiancé Hammy Hamilton – who legged it when Scotland were playing Brazil in 1998 – reappears attempting to resume normal service. Sarah is gobsmacked that Jackie is besotted all over again.

The following week, Isabel Wright’s new play, Daniel, is a monologue featuring Jack Tarlton, a tale of fractured father-son relationships, lost dogs and fears of impending fatherhood.

Pairing Off, by Alma Cullen, is set in the 1950s, and features the world of chiropody, local football management and relationship commitment. Throw in pie contracts and ballroom dancing and the world of Murdo, Mimi and Kenny becomes all so confused.

March 16 sees the return of Stuart Hepburn’s love story, The Beaches of St Valery, telling of the June, 1940, sacrifice of the men of the 51st Highland Division and a war-time romance.

It’s followed by The Infernal Serpent. David Gerow’s play invites us to meet Adam and Eve, devoted snake-rights activists who are getting nowhere. When a charming stranger arrives with radical ideas, they're forced to decide how far they’ll go for their cause.

Celestial Body, however, running on March 30, sees Morna Pearson’s new play consider whether creating six packs and avoiding bingo wings can save a relationship, via the lives of Laura, Hamish and Bruce – who all share a secret past.

We’re then back on the bio-play trail with Rose, Lorna Martin’s story of how Scotswoman Rose Reilly helped win the Women’s World Cup for Italy.

Yet, Rose, we discover, had once been expelled from school, sacked from her job and handed a lifetime ban by the Scottish Football Association.

Clearly, Reilly was a football star. But the girl from Ayrshire played by her own rules and went on to make headlines across the world.

It’s fake news that’s being explored in The Storm. Owen Whitelaw’s darkly comic drama is set during a live TV broadcast when a studio audience gets more than it bargains for.

There is more comic darkness to be found in Exquisite Corpse – the title is something of a giveaway – when Conor O'Loughlin’s play is staged on April 20.

We’re in the world of theme parks when Iona, an attendant, makes a grim discovery at her workplace. But her manager presents her with an impossible choice. “One thing is for sure, it’s not all fun at the fair and this certainly isn’t going to look good on her performance review,” said the Oran Mor spokesman.

Back in the world of biography, April 27 sees the arrival of Mary & Ada Set the World to Rights.

Jane Livingstone’s play is set in 1833 and follows the fortunes of Mary Somerville, a self-educated, married women from Fife, and Ada Lovelace, the wild 17-year-old daughter of Lord Byron. When a brutal accusation causes Mary to doubt her entire life’s work, the two must come together.

It’s real-life superheroes however who are the focus of Morna Young’s new play. Silver Superheroes looks at the lives of Strongman and Lady X who were out there saving the world in the 1970s.

But after incurring a bad hip and a dodgy knee they were forced into retirement. Now it’s time for them to step out of retirement because a mysterious force has awoken. And one final adventure awaits.

Politics these days has polarised opinions like few other periods in recent history. So what happens when two opposing forces decide to settle their differences?

Rob Drummond’s Milkshake sees a right-wing politician and a left-wing activist meet in a court-mandated restorative justice session after the later throws a milkshake at the former.

But when the moderator doesn’t show they take it upon themselves to conduct the session without supervision.

“How difficult can it be? After all, it was only a milkshake. It’s not like anyone died.”

There were young people being killed in Easterhouse in the late 1960s when singer Frankie Vaughan visited the Glasgow housing scheme. Kim Millar’s Mr Moonlight, which runs on May 18, rewinds to the period when Vaughan decided to mediate between police and gang leaders to bring about a knife amnesty.

The result was intended to set into motion a process of change for the beleaguered housing estate.

The final play of the season, 1 + 1 Makes 3 looks at the impact of the arrival of a baby into the world of Robbie and Jess.

Andy McGregor, who wrote the hugely successful Crocodile Rock last season, has created a couple who “are living the life.” Robbie is successful investment banker and Jess is on her way to becoming a headteacher.

But then, totally out of the blue, Jess discovers she is pregnant. They'll be fine, won’t they? It's just a baby. How disruptive to their metropolitan, 21st century lives can that be?

They have no idea.

So the message is simple; share with someone else the delights of theatre. Of course, not every play will delight. But enjoy the promise of escape for an hour.