The ninety minute drama that is every game of football, has been brilliantly reimagined as a conduit for a stage drama in this debut play from Eilidh Loan. Set in a small working class town in the West of Scotland, Moorcroft has as its central character Gary, played with believable swagger by Martin Docherty, who has reached 50 but for him party balloons are made to be burst rather than bounced. His landmark birthday triggers memories of his youth and the set of pals he had back in the days when they formed a wee fitbaa team, the eponymous Moorcroft, to help improve their lives.
Gary acts as narrator from the opening scene against a backdrop of an angry graffitied wall and a washing line from set designer Carys Hobbs that acts as a brief wardrobe department as the cast appears and dons various items before Gary gives a potted history of each of his old pals in their youth. This excellent ensemble cast, made up of Sean Connor as Paul; Jatinder Singh Randhawa as Mick; Santino Smith as Noodles; Kyle Gardiner as Sooty; Dylan Wood as Tubs and Bailey Newsome bringing his character Mince to marvellous life, deliver high energy performances to music of that calibre of the era from the likes of The Clash, Madness, Joy Division and New Order in this superbly choreographed piece of physical theatre.
Eilidh Loan is a young woman writer who has captured a male world in her well-crafted script that cracks open topics of mental and physical health, racism, homophobia, the injustice of early deaths and the hurt of home truths with both humour and sensitivity. Inspired by true stories from her own Dad’s youth, the play exposes the depth of feeling hidden behind the rudeness, madness and dark humour – aka ‘changing room banter’- that was commonplace in Gary’s era using language that would have the polis at your door now. The dialogue is peppered with naturalistically used expletives including more than one C word as when the Mod character Sooty gets an untimeous cancer diagnosis.
She has created a moving, funny, vibrantly raw and utterly appealing piece of theatre that goes some way to reversing the invisibility of working class lives that lies at the core of the frustrations felt by Gary and likely many men like him – that very human feeling of wanting to be remembered when you’re gone. Moorcroft is top of the league!
Moorcroft is a Tron Theatre Production, in association with National Theatre of Scotland
Running time 90 mins Age recommend 14 +
Tour continues till 04 November 2023
Irene Brown
Radio Summerhall Arts 