Anna Burnside reviews a ‘well-crafted’ edition to this year’s season of A Play, A Pie and A Pint.
It’s Saturday night on Skye. In the absence of a lock-in, Eilidh Beag and Eilidh Mhor need somewhere else to carry on the session. Assuming a dark cottage is a holiday let, they crash in and continue some very realistic wine-fuelled best-friend-but-I-hate-you conversation.
Turns out Eilidh Beag (it means big Eilidh, a childhood nickname to distinguish her from her cousin wee Eilidh) has moved back from Glasgow, is living with her mum and boyfriend and is raging that her teacher’s salary can’t stretch to a house with sea views and a wood burning stove.
The twist, which is actually more of a gentle bend in a single-track road, is that this is not actually a holiday let. It’s the home of the third Eilidh: the cousins’ former teacher. Her arrival, resplendent in pyjamas and motorbike helmet, brandishing a shinty stick, is still a jump scare.
This romp through the rural housing crisis is a really well-crafted PPP. It’s the perfect size of subject for 55 minutes, and writer/director Lana Pheutan keeps it tight and pacy. The references to island life are lightly done and accessible to the mainlander.
MJ Deans, as Eilidh Beag, is a tremendous physical performer, whether she’s caressing the log burner, hogging the wine or drama queening over the kitchen table.
The ending cleverly ties it all together and ends on an up note. If only the real rural housing crisis could have such a pleasing resolution.
Eilidh, Eilidh, Eilidh performs at Oran Mor’s A Play, A Pie and A Pint until March 15, 2025. It then transfers to the Traverse Theatre (March 18-22).
Photo by Tommy Ga-Ken Wan.
RSS