Theatre
Happy Hour
Oran Mor, Glasgow
Mary Brennan
FOUR STARS
Publican Joe, is in his usual place at the head of the table – or rather, his ashes are. The fact that they’re in a wonky old shoe-box slyly suggests Happy Hour – a first play from Anita Vettesse, directed by Gethin Evans – will prove a black comedy, even though there’s nothing funny about the family meltdown that ensues when it comes to the money that’s on the table (as it were) with Joe’s remains.
Maybe Vetesse’s own highly successful career on-stage has nurtured an instinct, and an ear, for what really hits the mark, not just in comedy but in believable drama. It helps, of course, that Happy Hour has a cast that understands comic timing and can also tell the difference between obvious stereotype and nuanced reality. Daughter Kay, for instance, is yet again in a quagmire of debt and aspirational delusions: she needs her share of the money to survive, so she hectors and wails and clypes on her brother Tom about his life in Africa – anything to prise a cheque from her mother.
Kay could be a one-note whinger, but Hannah Donaldson shows us the hurt, immature child she still is – albeit with a barbed tongue in her head. She probably got that from her mother. Anne Lacey’s shrewd, controlling widow is wickedly caustic – Vettesse hands her some brilliant put-downs – but again, there’s another, needy, side to her that emerges in her exchanges with the briefly returned Tom (Stephen McCole). She’d assumed he was home for good... Time and again, you just have to laugh: the dialogue is too sharp, too full of hilariously venomous point-scoring not to – but the punch-lines are never at the expense of the underlying griefs that this dysfunctional family simply can’t bury or forgive.
Sponsored by Heineken
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here