Anna Burnside reviews a production from a new playwright with 'real promise'.
Four school pals who have stuck together beyond the playground are now navigating their 20s. They do this by posting on Instagram, swigging Sauvy B out the bottle and wondering why everyone else seems to have it all sorted. Why are they the only ones not doing “big life things”?
Sadie (Millie Rodger), the thoughtful, outdoorsy one, has a solution: a camping trip and hike up a big hill. Surely that is big enough for starters?
And so we have a classic fish-out-of-water set-up as the three committed urbanites turn up in white high heels, minus a tent yet with more luggage than Joan Collins.
Mirren Wilson’s script veers between highly coloured girl smut and Gaelic-studded introspection. The comic moments - a life lesson delivered via tent poles, doing the Slosh in a haunted pub, Claire’s pube-containing Victorian swimming ensemble - are performed at full volume and 100 miles an hour. They’re packed with the gallus Glesga banter familiar from shows featuring The Dolls.
In the quieter moments, when the pace and tone drops, Sadie has a lot of exposition to cover in her plot-driving speeches.
PALS would make a strong A Play, A Pie and A Pint production. In fact, it has much in common with Eimi Quinn’s The Funeral Club, another redemption road trip penned by a young Scottish woman. It’s Wilson’s first full-length script and has moments of real promise. It will be great to see what she does next.
PALS performs at the Gilded Balloon Patter House from 1700-1800 until August 26, 2024 (no performances on the 13th or 20th).
RSS