For the next stage of our existence, we are looking to recruit 2 x Non Executive Directors, to join the board, to contribute to the good governance of the organisation, oversee the delivery of the vision and mission and act in an ambassadorial role.
We are looking for people with experience in some (but not all) of these skills:
• Marketing and Communications
• Legal work in an Arts context
• HR
• Environmental issues
• Access and Disability rights
We are looking to diversify our current board and are particularly interested in applications from candidates from a wide variety of sectors (business, third sector) the Global Majority, people under the age of 50 and those with an interest in the arts and theatre.
Please note this is not a remunerated position.
How to apply
Application is by CV (inc 2 references) and a covering letter of application outlining why you’re an appropriate candidate for this role.
Application deadline: 10.30am on Friday 1st March 2024
Interviews will be held with the Chair, Kevin O’Sullivan and Vice Chair, Edward Crozier at a time mutually convenient to both parties.
If you are invited to interview you will be asked about access requirements so we can put access provision in place accordingly.
Please send applications by email only, addressed to Kevin O’Sullivan (Chair) and marked in the subject line as BOARD MEMBER APPLICATION to sarah@playpiepint.com.
If you would like to have an informal chat about what the role involves with Kevin O’Sullivan (Chair) or Ed Crozier (Vice Chair) please email sarah@playpiepint.com marked in the subject line as BOARD MEMBER QUERY who will pass on your contact details.
Would you like to lead Glasgow Lunchtime Theatre in its mission to continue to be the most prolific producing theatre company in the UK?
We are seeking a talented, skilled, and experienced Artistic Director and Chief Executive to lead the organisation through to its next phase of its journey.
Glasgow Lunchtime Theatre, trading as A Play, A Pie and A Pint runs a year-round programme designed to excite, inspire, and engage the audiences and artists with whom we work. Described by The Herald as a ‘cultural phenomenon’, our vision is to create Theatre For All. Our Programme is inspired by audiences and artists and celebrates the craft of playwriting, serving as the beating heart of new work for Scotland; we are small in scale, but big in impact. We produce a new play each week for 30 weeks of the year, with a pie and a pint included in the ticket price.
This is a full time fixed term contract, paid at a rate of £40-42,000 per annum. If you have demonstrable leadership skills within the arts sector, an excellent track record in making theatre, and the ability to motivate and lead a large team of internal and visiting staff members, we want to hear from you.
If you require the information in another format, please contact sarah@playpiepint.com
Please send applications by email only, addressed to Kevin O’Sullivan (Chair) and marked in the subject line as ARTISTIC DIRECTOR APPLICATION to sarah@playpiepint.com
If you would like to ask any questions about the post in advance of submitting your application, please email jemima@playpiepint.com marked in the subject line as ARTISTIC DIRECTOR QUERY.
Deadline for Applications 10.30am 23rd February 2024.
Interviews to be held on Wednesday 6th (first round) and Wednesday 20th March (second round) 2024.
What's On
Our Artistic Director, Jemima Levick, will be leaving next year following her successful appointment as Artistic Director at Tron Theatre.
Whilst this is sad news for our team, we can think of no one more deserving of this opportunity to lead at one of Scotland’s flagship theatres and we wish Jemima all the best in her new role.
We will share more information about this announcement and our next steps in the new year.
What's On
We’re thrilled to announce the 18 wonderful new plays as part of our upcoming Spring 2024 season, co-presented with Aberdeen Performing Arts, Ayr Gaiety, Dumfries & Galloway Arts Festival, Macrobert Arts Centre and Traverse Theatre.
2024 is our 20th anniversary and in that time we have produced almost 600 new plays and launched the careers of many now accomplished playwrights. In that spirit, our new season will shine a spotlight emerging writers, many of whom have never written for us before!
The season opens at Oran Mor on Monday 19 February with JACK, a dark comic monologue by Liam Moffat about navigating a life of loss, love and hope with the help of man’s best friend, directed by Gareth Nicholls (Artistic Director at Traverse Theatre).
Also in the programme, Imogen Stirling (Love the Sinner) debuts the fiercely funny Starvinginspired by Scottish activist Wendy Wood, in association with Raw Material; LaurieMotherwell (Sean and Daro Flake it ‘Til They Make It) shares a heartfelt story about pigeons with Roost, and Sylvia Dow (Threads) retells the ups and downs of finding love as you get older in musical comedy Looking for the One.
As part of a commission with Sanctuary Queer Arts to bring a new queer play to life, recipient Hannah McGregor will tell a story of a young queer Scot meeting the misunderstood Loch Ness Monster in new comedy Ness. Other plays by queer artists this season include Medea on the Mic, a feminist retelling of the classic Greek tragedy by Nazli Tabatabai-Khatambakhsh, and Laila Noble’s coming-of-age comedyDungeons, Dragons, and the Quest for D***.
Also making their PPP debut, Ellen Ritchie brings us dark comedy Hotdogwhich sees a young woman, dressed in a hotdog costume, who is determined to be the life of the party; Éimi Quinn’s heartfelt comedy The Funeral Club sees a group of friends from a teenage cancer ward go on a diamond heist; Kirsty Halliday shows us the mishaps at a Highland lodge with the farcical Bread & Breakfast, and Mairead A. Martin takes us on a saucy journey of self-discovery in Bridezilla and the Orchard of Sin.
Also this season, Thomas Jancis’s Tamám Shud is an Alan Bennet-esque comedy inspired by a real-life murder, Who Pays The Piper by Jen McGregor showcases the reality of who gets to make their music ambitions happen, and Mike O’Donnell brings us gentle comedy The Way, The Truth, and The Lifewhich is set in the West of Scotland.
Other highlights include Lewis Capaldi Goes Tropical, a surreal chaotic comedy by Raymond Wilson about a Glaswegian family whose illegal pet okapi is bought by the pop sensation, and Pushin’ Thirty by Dundee-based duo Taylor Dyson and Calum Kelly, a new comedy with original songs about approaching the milestone age. Closing out the season, Ross Collins Mackay (Treasure Island) will put a hilarious political spin on a Dickens classic with Party of the Century, which sees a man visited by three ghosts of Conservative past.
As part of PPP’s ongoing commitment to accessibility, two of the shows this season (Dungeons, Dragons ,and the Quest for D*** and Party of the Century) will be fully BSL interpreted and the four plays in May will have Sunday performances at Òran Mór to give audiences a whole weekend of opportunity to enjoy our lunchtime theatre experience.
“2024 will be our 20th anniversary and, in the spirit of our beloved late founder David MacLennan who took a shot on many now-established playwrights, it felt right that this season should be centred on emerging writers who deserve to have their sensational plays put on in front of packed-out audiences.
I say this every season but there is truly a play for everyone here, and I hope audiences come away at lunchtime enriched, entertained, and of course nourished from their pies and pints!”
Jemima Levick, Artistic Director
Standard and student tickets are on sale now for all performances at Òran Mór, with season tickets on sale later this month.
Like countless others across the country and world, we have been distraught following the events unfolding in the Middle East.
The attack on Israel by Hamas was horrific, and we sincerely hope that the hostages are returned to their loved ones safely and as soon as possible. We do not condone this action in any way.
The retaliatory response that has led to unbearable pain, devastation, and death being inflicted on innocent Palestinians in Gaza who were already suffering under a blockade, has no legal or moral justification.
We are a small arts organisation but we have a voice and it is important to speak up when the world is witnessing one of the worst humanitarian crises in our time. We support an immediate ceasefire to end the suffering and death of innocent lives, and stand in solidarity with our peers, colleagues, and other arts organisations who are calling for this necessary action too.
We support Art Workers for Palestine Scotland’s Open Letter and will be asking our audiences after each show this week to make bucket donations that we will forward on to support necessary humanitarian aid in Gaza.
A Play, A Pie and A Pint
What's On
Submissions are now open for the David MacLennan Award 2023/24!
In honour of our late founder and his unrelenting belief that anyone could give theatre a go, this prize is about uncovering new writing talent in Scotland and giving an opportunity to someone who has never written a professionally produced play before.
The winner will have their work developed and presented as part of A Play, A Pie and A Pint (PPP)’s Autumn 2024 season at Oran Mor, Glasgow.
What: £1850* licence fee and play produced at PPP in November 2024
Who: A Scottish based writer, 18+, who has never had their work professionally produced
Application: 2 page treatment and 5 page play extract
At the heart of this prize is the principal that anyone can enter and we hope that this award will serve as a starting point for a new writer to find their voice and have their work seen by the public in a professional production.
We are pleased to announce a new writing commission opportunity in collaboration with Sanctuary Queer Arts!
After working together successfully on The Devil Drinks Cava by JD Stewart earlier this year, we’re delighted to work with Sanctuary Queer Arts to bring a new queer play to life in 2024.
This exciting commission is about finding and nurturing new queer talent in Scotland, so it is open to anyone who identifies as LGBTQIA+ and has never had a play commissioned by A Play, A Pie and A Pint.
As well as receiving fees, the successful applicant will have mentorship from an experienced artist who will provide career support and dramaturgical input to assist the writer in producing a first draft of the play.
After a development process in March 2024, the new play will be professionally produced and presented at Òran Mór in Glasgow as part of our 20th anniversary celebrations with the potential to be toured across other venues in Scotland.
Applications are open now and close on Sunday 22 October.
A Play, A Pie and A Pint (PPP) is delighted to announce its Autumn 2023 season featuring 12 exciting new plays themed around Tales of Coming Home, co-presented with Aberdeen Performing Arts, Ayr Gaiety, Pitlochry Festival Theatre and Traverse Theatre.
The season begins on Monday 4 September at Òran Mór, Glasgow with Forever Home, an uplifting new musical play by Pauline Lockhart and Alan Penman about an adopted girl finding her way home.
Acclaimed Scottish playwright Douglas Maxwell returns to PPP with The Sheriff of Kalamaki, a new comedy-drama directed by our Artistic Director Jemima Levick based upon a real man who made his home in Zante and polices troublesome Brits abroad. Other shows inspired by real people include Alice Clark’s play Ship Rats, about her Glaswegian great-great-granny who sailed the world, and Brian James O’Sullivan’s heart-warming Meetings with the Monk that features some funny holy men.
The extremities of home and identity feature prominently in both An Act of Union, a sung-through musical by Andy McGregor about the possible dangers of militant nationalism in Scotland, and in Meghan Tyler’s FLEG, a new comedy directed by Dominic Hill, Artistic Director at Citizens Theatre, which sees a dark obsession take hold of a patriotic couple in Belfast.
Also this season, a brutal board game tears a family apart in Disfunction by Kate Bowen and the dangers of our home playthings are showcased too in Playthrough, a new spooky interactive play by Kenny Boyle about a cursed video game where the audience chooses what will happen.
Some exciting creatives will be making their PPP writing debut this season. Annie George’s poignant Coast sees two half-siblings go on a journey of self-discovery, Peter Stewart showcases how grand narratives and identity meet their match in office politics in Castle Fallon, and Glasgow-based musical theatre duo Jonathan O’Neill and Isaac Savage will debut Stay, a new musical about love, grief and peculiar park-life.
Finishing the season in blazing glory, The Guns of Johnny Diabloby Philip Differ is a new farce where oversized egos try to record a radio version of a recently discovered spaghetti western to hilarious effect.
I am incredibly excited about our upcoming Autumn season. ‘Home’ can mean so many different things to everyone, from our ancestral home to the home that we make for ourselves, and I cannot wait for audiences to see some truly brilliant takes on this concept from the finest writers, directors and creatives in Scotland.
– Jemima Levick, Artistic Director at A Play, A Pie and A Pint
Tickets are on sale now for all performances at Òran Mór and can be booked online or through Box Office on 0141 357 6211 or in person.
A Play, A Pie and A Pint (PPP) is pleased to be able to offer the role of Resident Director(Marilyn Imrie Fellowship) who will work alongside the Artistic Director and wider team for our Autumn 2023 season.
This fixed term position would suit an early to mid-career Director who is keen to support the development of new plays and gain regular experience at the UK’s most prolific producing venue for new work.
Application deadline: Wednesday 5 July 2023 at 11am Interviews: Monday 10 July 2023 Start date: Monday 28 August 2023
Working in collaboration with Stellar Quines Theatre Company, The Marilyn Imrie Fellowships were first launched in 2022, in memory of Marilyn Imrie, a celebrated and theatre director and radio producer whose huge talent and inspiration played an important role within both companies. This residency is A Play, A Pie and A Pint’s celebration of Marilyn.
A regular director with the company, Marilyn contributed over sixteen productions to the PPP canon. Her ‘can do’ spirit, her openness and excitement of bringing artists together to tell a story were infectious. Undeterred by an ambitious idea, and well known for bringing emerging artists along with her for the ride, this fellowship is created in honour of her and the work she created for PPP.
What's On
***Applications Closed***
A Play, A Pie and A Pint (PPP) is delighted to host the next Scottish Casting Workshop in Glasgow on Thursday 6 July 2023.
Scottish Casting Workshop (SCW) is a free workshop run by actors for actors. It allows those casting in Scotland to meet actors living in Scotland in greater numbers. Jemima Levick, Artistic Director of PPP, will attend the workshop as well as other directors, producers, and casting directors from across the country.
There will be three sessions throughout the day (10am, 12.45pm and 3.15pm) with 16 spaces available per session.
We had 424 applications for the 48 places on the workshop. Of the applications:
86 applicants self identified as a member of the Global Majority 60 applicants self identified as living with a disability 249 applicants self identified as working class 135 applicants self identified as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community
All applicants will be emailed a Yes/No decision by Thursday 22 June at 5pm. If you have not heard anything by Friday 23 June then please email scotcastworkshop@gmail.com.
A Play, A Pie and A Pint (PPP) is delighted to announce the cast of Leopards Ate My Face, a new comedy by Outlander star Grant O’Rourke about the dangers of letting your paranoia take the wheel.
This production marks our second time co-presenting with Dumfries & Galloway Arts Festival after the well-received The Infernal Serpent by Dave Gerow as part of our Spring 2022 season.
River City star Claire Dargo, Paul McCole (Orphans, Welcome to Bannockburn) and NClan Arts graduate Caroline McKeown make up the talented cast for this hilarious comedy.
Actress Jo Freer, who has performed at A Play, A Pie and A Pint four times including last season’s Made in China, will be making her directorial debut with this new play.
Leopards Ate My Face will debut at Òran Mór, Glasgow from 15 – 20 May 2023 before performing as part of the Dumfries & Galloway Arts Festival from 22-27 May 2023 at Theatre Royal Dumfries, Stanraer Millennium Centre and Old Well Theatre.
What's On
Andrew Agnew and Ruairidh Forde.
A Play, A Pie and A Pint (PPP) is excited to reveal the cast of Quietus, the final instalment in Matthew McVarish’s ‘Life and Death’ trilogy of plays.
Co-presented with Ayr Gaiety, this new production centres on Donald, a man living on the spectrum with a crippling fear of the outside world, who gets assigned a carer determined to help him despite Donald not wanting to help himself.
Andrew Agnew, best known for his television roles as Walter in Scot Squad and the beloved PC Plum in BAFTA award-winning Balamory, will play Donald alongside Ruairidh Forde, Community Associate Director at Showworks Theatre, as his carer.
Maggie Kinloch will direct Quietus after leading the previous plays in the trilogy; Remember You are Beauty Full and Kind Stranger for A Play, A Pie and A Pint.
Quietus will debut at Òran Mór, Glasgow from 8 – 13 May 2023 before moving to Ayr Gaiety from 25-27 May 2023. Tickets are available to book now through Box Office on 0141 357 6200 or online.
What's On
Elaine Mackenzie Ellis, Tom McGovern and Helen McAlpine.
A Play, A Pie and A Pint (PPP) is delighted to announce the cast of Davina & Goliath by David Bailie and Dave Anderson, a new comedy-drama about a woman who is in jail after protesting again Faslane’s nuclear weapons plant.
This new play stars Elaine Mackenzie Ellis as the titular Davina alongside Tom McGovern and Helen McAlpine in supporting roles.
See Davina & Goliath as part of our Spring 2023 season at Òran Mór, Glasgow from Mon 1 – Sat 6 May 2023. Tickets are available to book now through Box Office on 0141 357 6200 or online.
What's On
A Play, A Pie and A Pint (PPP) is delighted to announce that its acclaimed musical SCOTS will be performing at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe as part of the Made in Scotland showcase.
Following its sell-out run at Òran Mór and upcoming concert performance at 54 Below in New York, SCOTS will return to home soil and perform for two weeks only from Monday 14 to Sunday 27 August 2023 at the iconic Ghillie Dhu. Audiences will get the classic PPP experience with all tickets including hot food and a drink, making it a unique and fantastic value-option for festival-goers this August.
Written and composed by award-winning duo Noisemaker (Scott Gilmour and Claire McKenzie), SCOTS retells the true(ish) history of Scotland through the perspective of its greatest invention and storyteller – The Toilet – in an hour-long irreverent and rousing musical journey full of incredible original songs.
The show will be directed again by Jemima Levick, Artistic Director at A Play, A Pie and A Pint, with all eight cast members from its Òran Mór run returning to perform; Richard Conlon, Tyler Collins, Lauren Ellis-Steele and Grant McIntyre star alongside Royal Conservatoire of Scotland students Sebastian Lim-Seet, Star Penders, Yana Harris and Mackenzie Wilcox.
SCOTS is about our history, our people, our culture and one very special toilet. It’s a celebration of Scotland, as much as it is a dissection, and we’re thrilled to share it, along with our wonderful cast and team, with the brilliant, eclectic and international audiences of the Fringe! – Noisemaker’s Scott Gilmour and Claire McKenzie
I’m so excited to be presenting SCOTS as part of the 2023 Fringe. At A Play, A Pie and A Pint, we always strive to further the reach of our work. While we have a network of wonderful co-presenters across Scotland, the Fringe offers an opportunity to connect with venues and stages from the rest of the UK and internationally, which is a fantastic prospect. – Jemima Levick, Artistic Director at A Play, A Pie and A Pint
Tickets for SCOTS at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2023 will go on sale in the near future. More information on how to book will be shared on our website and on our social media pages.
What's On
Gail Watson and Sam Stopford
A Play, A Pie and A Pint (PPP) is delighted to announce the cast of Faye’s Red Lines by Ian Pattison (Rab C Nesbitt) about a woman who has an unexpected revelation that triggers her buried past and forces her to take stock of her solitary life.
Directed by Liz Carruthers, this new play stars Gail Watson (Gillian Gibson in BBC’s River City)as the titular character alongside Sam Stopford, previously seen in Sally and Alföld during our Autumn 2022 season.
See Faye’s Red Lines as part of our Spring 2023 season at Òran Mór, Glasgow from Mon 24 – Sat 29 April 2023. Tickets are available to book now through Box Office on 0141 357 6200 or online.
A Play, A Pie and A Pint (PPP) is delighted to announce the cast of Welcome to Bannockburn by Lesley Hart, co-presented with Macrobert Arts Centre, about a father and daughter stuck working together at a five-star historical attraction in Stirling.
Directed by Julie Ellen (Artistic Director at Macrobert Arts Centre), this new play stars Madeline Grieve and Paul McCole as the daughter and father respectively alongside Nicola Jo Cully in a comedy-drama about shared history, public shaming and the sh*t women face in the workplace.
See Welcome to Bannockburn, part of our Spring 2023 season, at Òran Mór, Glasgow (17 – 24 April 2023) and for the first time at Macrobert Arts Centre, Stirling (18-22 April 2023).
A Play, A Pie and A Pint (PPP) is delighted to announce the cast of Storytelling by Oliver Emanuel, a newcomedy-drama about how the power of stories can overcome the darkest moments in life.
Directed by Finn den Hertog (Associate Artist at National Theatre of Scotland), this new play stars Martin Donaghy (549: Scots of the Spanish Civil War) and Francesca Hess (Alföld, Comedy of Errors).
Storytelling will debut at Òran Mór, Glasgow (10 – 15 April 2023) before performing at The Lemon Tree, Aberdeen (18-22 April 2023) and The Gaiety, Ayr (27-29 April 2023).
A Play, A Pie and A Pint will be celebrating its 20th anniversary next year and to mark this milestone, we want to publish a book with 20 plays from our last twenty years in one lovely collection.
To make this a reality, we have launched a Crowdfunder campaign to raise £3000 to help us with all the costs involved. For anyone who donates, there are some fantastic rewards including…
A signed copy of the book
A lovely ‘A Play, A Pie and A Pint’ hamper with the book, a scrumptious pie and a craft beer
An opportunity to meet the cast at rehearsals
Our project is part of the 2023 Creative Scotland Crowdmatch competition who will match individual pledges up to £10,000. So if you donate £20, your donation will be matched with a £20 pledge from Creative Scotland, effectively doubling your donation.
We would be very grateful if you are in a position to support us, or if you are able to share the word to help us achieve our goal!
A Play, A Pie and A Pint (PPP) is thrilled to announce that Noisemaker’s acclaimed musical SCOTS is off to New York this April as part of the city’s iconic Tartan Week; an annual celebration and gathering of Scottish business, enterprise and culture.
The rousing musical, playfully retelling the history of Scotland on stage, is invited to perform a selection of songs at the Tartan Week Supper Club on Thursday 13 April, an annual event presented by the American Scottish Foundation.
Following that, the cast will be doing a concert performance at the prestigious Tony award-winning cabaret venue 54 Belowon Sunday 16 April. This special performance will be directed by PPP’s Artistic Director Jemima Levick, produced by Brannon Bowers with music direction by Luke Williams.
The 2023 cast of SCOTS sees seven of the eight original members return from its debut run last year as part of PPP’s Spring 2022 season. Richard Conlon, Tyler Collins, Lauren Ellis-Steele and Grant McIntyre will be joined by Royal Conservatoire of Scotland students Sebastian Lim-Seet, Star Penders, Yana Harris and Mackenzie Wilcox.
Scottish audiences will get the opportunity to see SCOTS in action before it heads to New York, with the sensational musical performing a week-long run at Òran Mór, Glasgow from Monday 3 – Saturday 8 April as part of our Spring 2023 season!
This project has been made possible thanks to support from Creative Scotland.
As writers, it’s a privilege to see work we’ve created and developed in Scotland have an international reach, and we’re thrilled to be bringing this exceptional cast and team to New York. We both can’t wait to share this slightly mad, musical rollercoaster through Scotland’s history with audiences both at home and across the sea. – Noisemaker’s Scott Gilmour and Claire McKenzie
SCOTS is a show that I’m immensely proud of, made with care and diligence by the small but brilliant Play, A Pie and A Pint team, joined with the unsurpassable talents of Noisemaker. This, for me, is exactly what we’re about; making small but brilliant shows that reach further than Glasgow to see a National and International audience. – Jemima Levick, Artistic Director at A Play, A Pie and A Pint
It’s a wonderful opportunity for our BA Musical Theatre students Yana Harris, Star Penders, Sebastian Lim-Seet and Mackenzie Wilcox to perform in New York as part of Tartan Week celebrations, and at 54 Below, in a production created by RCS alumni. It will be a rich learning experience and an invaluable insight into professional life. – Gemma Bodinetz, Director of Drama, Dance, Production and Film at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
Tickets are on sale now for the performances atÒran Mór! Book online or through Box Office on 0141 357 6200, boxoffice@oran-mor.co.uk or in-person at the venue.
What's On
Nicole Cooper, Johnny Panchaud and Beth Marshall
A Play, A Pie and A Pint (PPP) is delighted to announce the cast of The Spark by Kathy McKean, a new play about a woman who develops telekinetic powers after decades of suppressed rage that shows the ways a woman can and cannot remake her life and her world.
Directed by Gordon Barr (Artistic Director at Bard in the Botanics), The Spark reunites the team behind Medea, Bard in the Botanic’s acclaimed version of the Greek tragedy that won Best Production and Best Female Performance at the CATS Awards 2022.
This new play will star Medea’s Nicole Cooper, who most recently played Lady Macbeth in Zinnie Harris’s acclaimed Macbeth (an undoing) at The Lyceum, and Johnny Panchaud. They will be joined by Beth Marshall who returns to PPP after playing scientist Mary Somerville in Mary & Ada Set The World to Rights.
The Spark will debut at Òran Mór, Glasgow(27 March – 1 April 2023) before performing at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh (4 – 8 April 2023).
Aodhan Gallagher has written a blog about their inspirations and experience of writing this new comedy-drama centred around two gay men from very different generations.
“I am not a gay writer. I am a writer who happens to be gay” – Edward Albee
I remember coming across this quote in an article when I was at university, not long after I had “come out” (whatever that really means). I didn’t understand the difference between a gay writer and a writer who happens to be gay. It irrationally frustrated me at a time when I was so hungry to consume work by authors and artists who were like me, who had lived through the same struggles to be who they are.
But the more I thought about it, the more I realised we actually don’t have the same struggles at all. In fact, my queer elders and ancestors were dealt a very different set of cards from what my generation have been dealt, particularly those who lived through the AIDS epidemic. Although, the incessant attacks on transgender people currently proves that weaponised hate/propaganda really does come full circle.
So, the more I sat with the quote, the more I started to understand what Albee really meant. By a gay writer, he means a writer who is gay and also writes about “gay things.” He was well within his right to identify or not identify in any way he pleased, regardless of what his peers or successors thought about it.
Why should a minority artist feel any responsibility to represent anything other than the stories in their head, regardless of who they are about? If one politicises or essentially brands their own identity, does that mean they never really had much of an identity to begin with? Why do queer people my age, who did not live through a traumatising epidemic, feel they can police or, dare I say, censor those who did?
Bailey Newsome in rehearsals for Write-Off.
From these questions, Write-off was born and it aged into a play that was really my attempt to understand the biases and resentment that some older gay people, particularly gay men, have for queer people my age. It’s easy to assume that anyone who shares a facet of your identity also believes the same things as you, but I have encountered many gay people who are more conservative in their thinking. I don’t understand that, but if I did understand it, I wouldn’t have to write a play about it.
When you’re young, you’re constantly being told by older people how much easier you have it, which I agree with, but also disagree with. Within this contradiction, came the conflict for the play I wanted to write. In Write-off, we see an older gay man named Freddie (played by Richard Conlon), whom like Albee, is a gay man but refuses to be labelled as a gay writer. The work Freddie makes is controversial (think Bret Easton Ellis or Chuck Palahniuk) and after a lot of public criticism, he is forced to bring on a young assistant and an ambitious creative writing student called Ben (played by Bailey Newsome), who performs the role of a sensitivity reader for Freddie’s next novel.
An easy play to write would be that the conservative and “problematic” character is the bad guy, and the “progressive” character is the good guy. As you will see if you come along to watch it, I did not go for the easy option. In fact, if anything, I have more sympathy for Freddie than Ben, which admittedly wasn’t the case when I first started working on it. There are moments in the play that make me uncomfortable, but I keep having to remind myself that I am not representing all gay men or all people of a certain generation. I’m only representing these two specific and deeply flawed characters I have created.
As much as I have been banging on about “gay, gay, gay, queer, queer, queer,” I really do think that at its heart, this is a story about the clashes and intersections of two different generations. When Write-off was read and performed at Dundee Rep’s Stripped new work festival, it warmed my heart to see that people from all walks of life found something they could relate to, which is something I aspire to achieve with anything that I write.
Maybe I am a queer writer, maybe I am a writer who happens to be queer. I don’t really know. But if there’s one thing I have discovered while writing Write-off, it’s that our identities are intrinsically ours. We don’t owe any of it to anyone but ourselves.
This is my first professionally produced play and while it sounds pretty heavy, the team and I have found so much enjoyment and humour in it. I hope you will feel the same way. If not, at least you’re getting a pie and a pint out of it!
Write-off is performing Mon 13 – Sat 18 March at Òran Mór, Glasgow.
Tickets are available to buy via Box Office on 0141 357 6200, boxoffice@oran-mor.co.uk or online here.
Aodhan Gallagher
Writer
What's On
A Play, A Pie and A Pint (PPP) is delighted to announce the cast of Variant, the 50th professionally produced play by Peter Arnott who returns to Òran Mór after The Signalman, winner of Best Production at the 2020 CATS awards.
Directed by Kolbrún Björt Sigfúsdóttir (Sandcastles, hang), this new play stars MeghanTyler (Pride & Prejudice* (*Sort Of), Crocodile Fever) and Simon Donaldson (Underwood Lane, The Lost King) as a woman and man on stage with ‘something’ going on between them that keeps the audience guessing throughout.
Variant, the fifth show of PPP’s Spring 2023 ‘Fresh Perspectives’ season, will debut at Òran Mór, Glasgow(20-25 March 2023) before performing at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh (28 March – 1 April 2023).
We’re delighted to announce the cast of our new comedy-drama Write-Off, co-presented with Traverse Theatre, in association with Dundee Rep.
This witty show exploring the conflicting beliefs of two equally stubborn gay men from diffrerent generations stars Richard Conlon (My Left Right Foot, Spuds, The Whip Hand) and Bailey Newsome (1902, Oor Wullie: The Musical).
Written by Aodhan Gallagher and directed by Irene Macdougall, see Write-Off at Òran Mór, Glasgow (13 – 18 March) and at Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh (21 – 25 March).
And I know if I say the Climate Crisis, their eyes will glaze over…
I almost didn’t write Burning Bright. I was working on something else entirely when Ash, Mo and Alex moved into my head and refused to leave. They kept distracting me and interrupting my work, following me into the bathroom, nagging me from the back seat of the car.
They wouldn’t let me sleep. I realised they’d give me no peace until I let them speak. So, I sat down to write what I though would be a few rough notes…and these long drama-stories streamed down the screen, page after page.
Aine King’s desk and notes when writing Burning Bright
I almost didn’t enter the David MacLennan Award. The deadline was just a week or so away and I was still shuffling the pieces of my first draft. I was cross-cutting and inter-weaving the three voices, keeping track of who-speaks-when with half a hundred coloured post-it notes on my desk. This worked really well until someone opened the door and an Orkney breeze came in at 50mph and rearranged everything for me.
I almost didn’t finish it in time. Mostly, I write about real people and events, but there were things here I knew nothing about. I’m very grateful to friends who helped with last-minute, emergency research, especially my friends of Indian heritage who helped me develop a childhood memory into a more complex story for Ash. There was a very rushed Zoom call about filming news broadcasts in extreme heat with a very patient filmmaker friend, and I probably still need to apologise for buttonholing an Orkney ferry crew friend in a bar, demanding he “Name ten objects on the deck of a small ship – in the Arctic!”
R&D day for Burning Bright in December 2022.
My R&D day at A Play, A Pie and A Pint was such a treat. Lots of writers send lots of scripts to lots of places all the time. Mostly, you never hear another word….or you get a ‘Sadly, on this occasion…’ email so many months later that you’ve forgotten what you submitted….or there’s some feedback, which can often be helpful, even when it totally contradicts feedback offered by the previous rejection.
A Play, A Pie and A Pint’s provision of R&D for the three award finalists is smart and generous. Hearing a play brought to life by actors is always exciting. When it’s your play, and the people you imagined in your head are coming to life up off the page in the room around you, it leaves you breathless.
Burning Bright is my third ‘proper’ play, my first stage play to get past long-lists, short-lists, table-reads, Zooms or Fringe shows. It feels odd being an ‘emerging’ or ‘early career’ playwright over fifty. I had a couple of other careers before this one, mainly because this one wasn’t on my school’s list of approved careers for working class girls with four O levels when I was emerging the first time round.
The David MacLennan Award is very special because it carries on the values he strove for. Curated by those who knew and loved him, it helps find new plays and new writers regardless of where they emerge from. I’m incredibly chuffed that Burning Bright is now part of that story. I can’t wait to see what Roxana Haines does with it on stage.
In a way, when Mo, Ash and Alex came barging into my head, demanding attention, stopping me from sleeping….they were doing what the Climate Crisis should be doing to us all. I wanted to put this emergency on stage -urgently, but without getting preachy or sanctimonious. We’re all simultaneously overwhelmed and bored by this disaster. We know it’s the most important thing but all our other human-emergencies keep getting in the way. Like Mo, Ash and Alex, we’re all distracted dealing with love and loss, jobs, money, a rubber dinghy, an urn full of ashes and a tiger…
“So, what is the play about, then?”
“A tiger. It’s about a tiger trying to get through someone’s front door.”
“Wow….A tiger? On stage?”
“Yup. Sort of. Come see!”
Burning Bright is performing Mon 27 Feb – Sat 4 March at Òran Mór, Glasgow.
Tickets are available to buy via Box Office on 0141 357 6200, boxoffice@oran-mor.co.uk or online here.
