Lochhead and Laula: Love, Love, Love

Theirs is a pairing, Liz Lochhead tells us, which has been bubbling under the surface for decades. A collection of piece from poet Lochhead and songs from troubadour Carol Laula, this should be an opportunity to see one of Scotland's most exciting contemporary poets supported by an equally celebrated Glaswegian singer-songwriter.

For a lot of the time, however, this doesn't really work. Carol Laula's polished, soulful vowels sit uneasily alongside the irony, sarcasm and surprise poignancy of Lochhead's colloquial Scots drawl. That's not to say Laula doesn't possess a cracking voice, and some wonderfully jazzy, gentle chord progressions – she does. But, if anything, she's a little too committed. Her eyes-closed, heart-wrenching crooning, in a show about "not being 21 anymore," seems less appropriate than Lochhead's wry grin. In a sultry blues, 'putting on my Sunday clothes for you', Laula does crack a smile, and the sense of relief is palpable.

Where this show really works is where the two genuinely collaborate. A Lochhead poem, 'My mother's suitors', achieves this nicely, Laula's soaring voice punctuating Lochhead's gently mocking recollections of her mother's well-groomed princes charming. The pair manage a superb balancing act, here, scuffing the gloss of the fairytale stories, while still retaining the power of nostalgia to move and uplift.

It's a shame this pair's run is so short. One suspects that with a little fine-tuning, Lochhead and Laula could hold this collaboration throughout. Love, love, love, with lashings of schmaltz, with heaps of sentimentality- but with an unflappable sense of fun- might just work.