Anna Burnside reviews a 'perfectly judged' production.
The ‘play’ part of A Play, a Pie and a Pint can be a bit like dating. Some of them are not ready to be out in public. Others try too hard to please or struggle to find enough to say.
Then a play comes along that hits the sweet spot. Looking for The One is a perfectly judged piece of drama for a lunchtime performance, packed with bus pass-carrying former liberal arts professionals.
Three random single folk meet at a bus stop and go for a coffee. It’s the start of a beautiful friendship as adorable gay millennial Gav (Alan Mackenzie) gets to know nerdy science lecturer Jack (Alan McHugh) and Tom Leonard-quoting English teacher Flora (Fletcher Mathers).
The classroom jokes are particularly well received by the many audience members who have gratefully retired from the blackboard jungle.
The three get to know each other, share tales of app-based disasters, mourn the ones that got away and relive the hell that is speed dating.
Much of this is done via musical vignettes with excellent rhyme schemes. Who does not want to hear McHugh, most often seen in a panto dame’s finery, match sex with unwashed kecks?
The songs are seeded with clues and jokes that then pay off in a delightful, if hardly surprising, finale.
There are no hard edges to Looking for The One. The only point it’s making is that it’s tough to find love, whether you are in your 30s with a good job in marketing or in your 60s with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the novelty hits of previous decades.
Sylvia Dow, who began writing plays late in life, pulls this off with huge charm, managing to be joyful without sliding towards cheese. It’s a triumph for her and a joy to see older characters getting the happy ending.
Looking for The One is at Oran Mor’s A Play, a Pie and a Pint until May 12, 2024.
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Photo by Tommy Ga-Ken Wan
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