The Oddest Couple

Oran Mor, Glasgow **

"What's the family secret?" is the kind of line that really shouldn't make it into a finished play. If it does, the secret really needs to be worth waiting for.

The revelation is just one of many awkward aspects to Clare Hemphill's uneven third Play, Pie and Pint offering, a slight comedy about a husband and wife who are actually pretty conventional.

The writer wins chuckles with a handful of undemanding observations about grown-up children and men in general, but this is hardly cutting-edge stuff and there's little attempt to weave these scenes into a coherent or consistently funny whole.

Director Eleanor Yule handles some scenes confidently, but she doesn't seem to know what to do with the rest of the play, other than have Ron Donachie's patriarch erupt into a strange, barking laugh every so often.

Hemphill's play marks a disappointing return for the self-referential Play, Pie and Pint offering, featuring as it does a thinly sketched actress character looking for work whose mother suggests "trying Oran Mor". Which is a little cheeky given that the writing, rather than the acting, is the problem here.