Smile and Say Thanks

Smile and Say Thanks is a tender and sweet play. Whether this is a good thing, in a festival dominated by genre-benders and controversial statement-plays, depends on how much optimism you can take. Its basic premise is that we live in a world of love and kindness, where the actions of one person can affect the life of another for the better. Adorable.

Five performers interlink various scenes of characters’ lives at special moments. The sketches include lover’s first meetings, tragic goodbyes and near-realised amorous trysts. The acting is capable and at times amusing, but not one of the performances leave the audience spellbound. The star of the show is, bizarrely, a wooden figurine – the Wee Man, whose tale of woe (he loses his head in a routine operation) uses magic realism to good effect.

The play is the winning entry in a student writing competition that was held at Glasgow University. It certainly has its fans, being described by a judge as reminiscent of snowflakes (interpret that how you wish). However, there are moments when the subtlety of the piece is replaced by a simplicity that is at times poignant and at times inane.