Theatre
Bus Regulation: The Musical (Strathclyde)
Platform, Easterhouse
Neil Cooper
Four stars
Once upon a time, the idea of running a regular bus service to some of Glasgow’s outlying areas might have seemed a fanciful notion. These days, while things have changed enough so it is possible to take a trip to see Ellie Harrison’s glorious piece of agit-prop theatre, it has been something of a bumpy ride getting here.
Bus Regulation: The Musical (Strathclyde) cops its moves from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Starlight Express to whizz through more than half a century of civic calamities on the road to the mess of bus privatisation that exists today. This is done largely through the narration of Nellie the Clippie. Played with effervescent brio by Katie Thomson, Nellie steers us through the rocky road from municipal ownership of buses to the deregulation that ushered in the mess of privatisation that exists today. This is illustrated by an eight-piece ensemble of skaters drawn from three local roller derby clubs; Glasgow Roller Derby, Mean City Roller Derby, and Sugar & Spin Skate Crew.
READ MORE: Bobby Bluebell: Pop's nearly man on when music was young at heart
The result is a fun and informative half hour that lays bare the roots of the ongoing absurdities of a systemhijacked to benefit company shareholders rather than the tax paying citizens who paid for them. Those responsible are booed like pantomime villains as Nellie names the guilty, while the skaters don various coloured capes and logos to mark the changes.
Originally presented in Manchester in 2019, Harrison has adapted the show for Glasgow with the aid of the Get Glasgow Moving campaign for better public transport in the city. While there are sadly no songs to flesh things out, this fact-filled extravaganza manages to both entertain and enlighten in a way that highlights how public services are being asset stripped in plain sight. This makes for a vitally of the moment piece of serious fun that is well worth the fare.
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