Theatre
It Wisnae Me
Oran Mor, Glasgow
Mary Brennan, three stars
As George – representing bowler-hatted England – and Jock – in Hey Jimmy orange wig and tartan tammy – dicker on about whose fault it was that Bad Things Happened at home and abroad, the clearest truth emerging in Alan Bissett’s play on ingrained stereotypes is that history hangs on whoever writes it. But when Danielle Jam arrives on-stage, more than half-way through their shape-shifting contretemps, she disrupts their double-act by asking who has the right to record other people’s history. Especially when it comes to the slave trade where - as in this play - those occupying centre-stage were white men while Jam, as evidenced by a slide from the script, is a no-name character tagged ‘Black Girl.’
Her point is succinctly made in a sprawling one-act that tries, valiantly, to cover centuries of actual (and perceived) animus between Scotland and England. Come the present day, however, and Jock (Ali Watt) is ready to plead the ‘wisnae me’ card when George (Andrew John Tait) arrests him and rolls out a charge sheet that references the worst brutalities of Jock’s colonial profiteering at the expense of other countries, cultures and peoples. Witnesses for the defence – as in the taped voices of Alasdair Gray, Paul H Scott and others – support Jock’s mitigating plea of how Scotland itself had been mistreated by England even after the Act of Union (1707).
It doesn’t quite wash, however, as Bissett’s bid for even-handed satire is willing to admit – not least because the fabric of Glasgow is, itself, witness to the wealth accrued from sugar, tobacco and slavery. Jam’s farewell advice to ‘move on’ cuts brilliantly through the guilt trip, and there’s a generous, forgiving twist in this tale of farcical blame games and factional amnesia that will perhaps allow you to accept her brisk council. It Wisnae Me is part of Black History Month: programme details at www.crer.scot
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