Writer: Isla Cowan
Director: Joanna Bowman
Less than 60 short minutes is all writer Isla Cowan has to weave her powerful tale of gender, self-identity and conditioning, Alright Sunshine, currently running as part of Òran Mór’s spring season of A Play, A Pie and a Pint.
Cowan’s impressive writing and Hannah Jarrett-Scott’s equally impressive acting combine perfectly to deliver this multi-layered tale.
Police officer Nicky McCreadie has been conditioned from birth by her policeman father, to be the perfect officer. Giving over her private life and her personal will to be an unquestioning defender of the city of Edinburgh. Nicky weaves her personal tale of dealing with joggers; radges with ferrets; pissed, pale-faced prom queens; Morningside Mummies on The Meadows; beer, BBQs and bravado; domestic dilemma and wrecked relationships.
Cowan is a master of language, the rhythmic, sometimes alliterative script delivers a powerful punch from a seemingly velvet glove. Cowan’s writing allows you to enjoy the story at its amusing face-value, but equally allows you to scratch below the surface to reveal the much darker and less palatable aspects of Nicky’s present and past lives.
The combination of Cowan’s lyrical writing, Jarrett-Scott’s tour-de-force acting and Joanna Bowman’s tight direction is not to be missed.
Runs until 4 June 2022 | Image: Contributed