Fringe 2024 Ne'er the Twain Mayfield Salisbury Church 3rd August Review
Edinburgh People’s Theatre, who have appeared at the Fringe every year since its inception in 1947 (apart from when Covid made it impossible) are back again, this time with “Ne’er the Twain” at Mayfield Salisbury Church (Venue 11). This comedy play is set in 1919 in a flat on Leith Walk, right on the boundary between Edinburgh and Leith. In fact, it’s so precisely on the boundary that the toilet and part of the lobby (hallway) are in Edinburgh, and the other rooms are firmly in Leith. The residents of this flat, the McIvor family, are proud Leithers, with their friends, the Burns family, being “swanky” Edinburghers. When it is announced that Leith is to become part of Edinburgh, this raises many questions of where their loyalities lie.
The play opens, to the sound of The Proclaimers’ “Sunshine on Leith”, in a carefully designed period tenement kitchen/livingroom (Set Design Mandy Black and Robert Fuller) where we meet Jean McIvor (Mandy Black) and Meg Burns (Lynn Cameron), who have returned from a Saturday afternoon shopping trip in Edinburgh to discover that Jean’s sister-in-law, Nellie McIvor (Lyzzie Dell), has let herself in with the key which is kept under the doormat, and made herself quite at home. We’re introduced to other family members as Jean’s hen-pecked husband Bob (Ronnie Millar) and Meg’s husband Hugh (Des Linton) return from a football match at Easter Road. Add into the mix the McIvors’ daughter Carol, her boyfriend Robin Burns, Wullie Lomax the lodger, and Mr Murchison, an Assistant Minister, and the stage is set for much humour. I won’t give too much of the plot away, but all nine members of the cast are very identifiable characters, with some hilarious performances, particularly when a wee dram is involved.
Ne’er the Twain continues until 17th August. If you want to spend two hours or so enjoying light-hearted theatre from a local amateur company, in a friendly and welcoming venue, this is well worth seeing. You even get complimentary tea/coffee and biscuits at the interval!
Review by Lisa Sibbald © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
The play opens, to the sound of The Proclaimers’ “Sunshine on Leith”, in a carefully designed period tenement kitchen/livingroom (Set Design Mandy Black and Robert Fuller) where we meet Jean McIvor (Mandy Black) and Meg Burns (Lynn Cameron), who have returned from a Saturday afternoon shopping trip in Edinburgh to discover that Jean’s sister-in-law, Nellie McIvor (Lyzzie Dell), has let herself in with the key which is kept under the doormat, and made herself quite at home. We’re introduced to other family members as Jean’s hen-pecked husband Bob (Ronnie Millar) and Meg’s husband Hugh (Des Linton) return from a football match at Easter Road. Add into the mix the McIvors’ daughter Carol, her boyfriend Robin Burns, Wullie Lomax the lodger, and Mr Murchison, an Assistant Minister, and the stage is set for much humour. I won’t give too much of the plot away, but all nine members of the cast are very identifiable characters, with some hilarious performances, particularly when a wee dram is involved.
Ne’er the Twain continues until 17th August. If you want to spend two hours or so enjoying light-hearted theatre from a local amateur company, in a friendly and welcoming venue, this is well worth seeing. You even get complimentary tea/coffee and biscuits at the interval!
Review by Lisa Sibbald © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com