Elizabeth Gordon Quinn Event Review

Playwright Chris Hannan says that this production of Elizabeth Gordon Quinn aims to strike up an "uneasy love-hate relationship" between the audience and the complex main character, Elizabeth. Living in a Glasgow tenement in 1915, with the rent and shipyard strikes underway, Elizabeth is in denial about her poverty and imagines herself the superior of her avowedly working class neighbours.

Loftily clutching at a dream-world, she is fiercely protective of a piano she can't even play, and refuses to set about improving her lot through practical means. Wage-earning is left to her daughter, Maura, and family relations soon take a tragic turn.

Here is where this performance lets fly some stunning emotional punches, particularly when the complex Elizabeth (Cara Kelly) faces her son Aidan (Robin Laing) but, unfortunately, the tension is later lost, as Kelly struggles to reconcile her heroine's witty black humour and cruel delusions. There is plenty to reflect upon but "love-hate" might be just a little too strong to describe it. [Alasdair Gillon]

Read our event preview of Elizabeth Gordon Quinn here.