Theatre review: Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens

ELEGIES FOR ANGELS, PUNKS AND RAGING QUEENS

TRON THEATRE, GLASGOW

* * *

Set in a half-deserted nightclub and punctuated by emotional, sometimes almost gospel-like musical numbers, the show consists of around 25 short monologues, in which a huge range of people who have died of Aids, and been commemorated on the famous Aids quilt, offer us a brief glimpse of their stories.

Some of the characters conform to the stereotype of the American Aids victim as a young, city-dwelling gay man, and there is a moving song called My Brother Lived In San Francisco that sums up this whole scene. One of the main points of the show, though, is to remember also the victims who don’t fit the pattern – the middle-aged man, the high-powered businesswoman, the grandmother, the self-hating church pastor – and to reflect on what all these people learned on the way to the grave, in the years before effective antiretroviral drugs became available.

For this new production at the Tron, Insideout and Upstage, two Glasgow companies specialising in theatre skills workshops, assemble an impressive 20-strong pro-am cast, including – for two performances – Glasgow-based X Factor candidate Edward Reid. There are some blazing demonstrations of acting and singing talent, backed by live cello and piano, and a good-looking nightclub set by Peter Screen, swathed in white muslin.

In the end, this remains a show of its time and place, a sentimental, sometimes absurdly upbeat Greenwich Village musical about the power of love to conquer all. But Paul Harper-Swan’s production is well-crafted and heartfelt; and it’s bound to mean a great deal to everyone whose life has been touched by what was – and for many still is – a cruel, life-threatening and life-changing disease.

JOYCE MCMILLAN