EDINBURGH 2013 - BWW Reviews: GOD BLESS LIZ LOCHHEAD, Assembly Rooms, August 6 2013

Vain actors and productions in the process of going wrong are popular, if tedious, topics for Fringe plays, perhaps in an attempt to acquire an audience of theatrical types who will recognise themselves on stage. "God Bless Liz Lochhead" bucks the trend of such shows, not least by having more to talk about than deluded quirky performers, but also by being a sharp and genuinely funny production.

In this play by Martin McCardie, three actors reunite twenty-five years after a turbulent but successful tour of Moliere's "Tartuffe", adapted by Liz Lochhead, the current Makar, or Scottish national poet. Danny (Andy Gray), desperate to work after an eighteen month drought of jobs, plans to put on a new version of the show, but the budget will only stretch to himself and two other performers, all of whom are being filmed for a reality television show about the process.

The production, first seen at Oran Mor in 2011 as part of the popular "A Play, A Pie and a Pint" season, will best make sense to an audience familiar with Scottish theatre and able to understand the references that sprinkle the production. However, the Assembly Rooms audience was content to laugh and clap their way through a show that never slacks for a moment. The three performances from Andy Gray, Juliet Cadzow and Kate Donnelly are spot on, displaying excellent comic timing and no fear in sending themselves up, but without ever becoming self-indulgent.

For all that "God Bless Liz Lochhead" offers a fun play-about-a-play, the most interesting dimension was what it has to say about the state of the Scottish theatre industry. Within the quips about spending more time in the makeup chair than in the final cut of a zombie movie, points are made about the difficulties in finding work within Scotland and the lack of quality Scottish drama on television. Of note was Cadzow's character claiming that Liz Lochhead's writing provided her with an opportunity to play something other than a female relation of a Glasgow gangster. The show begins to find some of its relevant bite here, via the odd dig at Creative Scotland, with a particularly interesting line in the show being "we shouldn't let budgets dictate our art". Sadly, many Scottish theatre companies do not have a choice in the matter. Within the story, it is Lochhead herself who is instrumental to the production's survival, but it is perhaps left unsaid that other troublEd Scottish productions would not be able to save themselves through a deus ex makar.

This strand was the main focus of the short Q&A session after the performance, where an engaged audience were keen to discuss how the decline in theatre and the subsistence level existence of actors could be changed. The acclaimed performers explained how many of the play's anecdotes of being up for parts such as "Man at the funeral" were actual personal experiences, and how wanting to work as an actor in Scotland is a handicap and seen as a sign that they have no ambition - a sad sentiment during a month when Edinburgh becomes the cultural centre of the UK. It's even more sad when we see what Scottish theatre can be when it has the chance, through clever writing and strong performances like those on offer in "God Bless Liz Lochhead".

"God Bless Liz Lochhead" runs until August 25th (not 12th) at 1420 at the Assembly Rooms.

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