Anna Burnside reviews a ‘pretty thin’ offering from A Play, A Pie and A Pint.
Ejaz is driving his taxi through the late-night streets of Glasgow. It’s the sweet quiet period between the Christmas lights going up and the mad wallopers going out for their annual night on the lash.
After a good deal of scene setting and a bit of introspection, the miracle happens. The miracle is that someone needs a taxi and Ejaz happens to be going past.
Certainly, this woman really, really needs a taxi - she has a sleepy toddler, a very sick baby and no phone signal to ring 999 - but I’m not convinced that this would convince the Vatican.
Ejaz drives them to the hospital, hangs around a bit, does some more taxi work and then returns in time to take the family home.
There’s no real jeopardy - it would have even less claim to be a miracle if the baby had not survived. So, the happy ending is pretty much a given, which gives Kai Sabir as Ejaz the job of keeping our attention for 50-odd minutes.
He does this with a lot of hand gestures and a few dance moves - there are songs seeded throughout the narrative, a nod to the taxi driver’s taste in background music.
Like the evidence of a miracle, it’s pretty thin.
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Miracle on Deanston Drive performs at Oran Mor’s A Play, A Pie and A Pint until November 16, 2024.
Photo by Tommy Ga-Ken Wan.
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