Theatre review: Grassic Gibbon

Published on Tuesday 10 November 2009 17:58

GRASSIC GIBBON *** THEATRE ROYAL, GLASGOW

SUNSET Song may be on the school curriculum, but the tragically foreshortened life of its author, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, has enjoyed less scrutiny. Journalist Jack Webster credits the novel with inspiring his vocation and, after 60 years, he has finally succeeded in bringing his account of the writer to the stage.

Part biography, part dramatised reading from the Scots Quair trilogy, the result is something of a curate's egg. Nevertheless, Webster's admiration for the man born James Leslie Mitchell, and the moving power of his subject's exceptional prose, dazzle.

With Michael McKenzie as Grassic Gibbon and narration from Vivien Heilbron (who starred as Chris Guthrie in the BBC's 1971 adaptation of Sunset Song), the production traces Grassic Gibbon's formative Mearns childhood through to his untimely death at just 33.

Webster's script has a clear, respectful eye for detail but is bound by the known facts, and Grassic Gibbon's suicide attempt is glossed over, as is speculation on correspondence with the women in his life.

Still, there remain some delightful touches. McKenzie hangs with anticipation on Heilbron's revelations of his belated publishing deals and plaudits, greeting each with triumphant glee.

Assertions that the nemeses of his youth would find their comeuppance in his fiction are also gratifyingly delivered upon.