Mrs Culfeathers. She was so natural and created a believable, fourdimensional character. I loved her dialogue when she was talking about the clothes on the line ‘in the old days’ in a wistful and reminiscent way; we were with her every step of the way. Antonia Nadin-Holden played Magrit and, with hands on hips, brought bags of personality into her part. She showed us the sheer determination and grit of a Glaswegian woman with her bolshy and bold character. I can relate to Antonia, as I had a five-year break from theatre myself and it takes a lot of courage to go back after such a big break and particularly to undertake such an ambitious part. Well done! Heather Radler took the role of Doreen. Heather had real stage presence, with her gentle and girlish energy which she brought to her character. Her accent was crystal clear, with perfect diction – I heard every word. This was an enjoyable performance to which Heather brought a unique, warm energy. The last of the female characters is Dolly, played by Claire St Pierre. Claire’s performance was laden with personality and her performance was confident, energetic and full of physical comedy in her expressions and movements. Paul McGowen (the token man) brought his usual uplifting energy in his role as Andy. It was fun to watch his performance, and it was tangible how much fun he was having with the character and the accent. The scene where he passes out drunk was particularly memorable. Absolutely brilliant performance; silly, fun, and authentic accent. The play needed very few lighting and technical cues, but they were all met perfectly with strong technical support. The haze worked well to create the atmosphere of the steamie and was just enough to not deter attention from the scenes. I would have liked there to have been some water present on stage – I feel even a little bit would have made a difference, particular as this was not stylised theatre but naturalistic, so every time there wasn’t water where there should have been, it jolted me back into the fact that it was imaginary and not real. The play lacked any real story (I realised this is a popular criticism of the play but still noteworthy) which meant for me that a lot of the idle chit-
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