Theatre reviews: Dookin' Oot | The Rainbow

The serious point of Dookin’ Oot isn’t lost in all the hilarity, writes Joyce McMillan

Dookin’ Oot, Oran Mor, Glasgow ★★★★

The Rainbow, Perth Theatre ★★★★

Last week, some online mischief-maker briefly accused a leading Scottish politician of declaring that Scots should stop associating Scottish comedy with the rude and lavatorial, and that the age of Billy Connolly was over.

It was fake news, of course; no Scottish politician would dare to disown the national treasure that is Sir Billy. And in any case, the tradition of potty-mouthed Glasgow comedy is forging on into a hugely energetic future in the hands of writers like Eimi Quinn, whose second A Play, A Pie and A Pint drama Dookin’ Oot opened the new spring season at Oran Mor last week, and now travels on to Edinburgh, Paisley, Johnstone and Aberdeen.

Janette Foggo, Kyle Gardiner and Helen McAlpine in Dookin' Oot | Tommy Ga-Ken Wan

Dookin’ Oot is set in the Glasgow flat of widowed Diane, who – at the age of seventy-odd, and dependent on visiting carers – has decided she has had enough, and is seeking death on her own terms. On one of her visits, carer Julie spots a letter from Dignitas in Switzerland; Diane explains that she’s unlike to make it to Zurich, because she can’t afford the trip.

At that point, though, Diane’s story collides with a crisis in Julie’s own life; and in no time – with the help of friendly, if gastrically explosive, young postman Connor – the two have devised a plan for an online business that will give Julie back her independence and her sexual mojo, while generating enough cash to take Diane to Zurich and beyond.

To say that Eimi Quinn delivers the story in vivid style is an understatement, as the drama rolls out on a tide of raunchy one-liners from Janette Foggo’s brilliantly earthy Diane, matched by Kyle Gardiner’s haplessly uninhibited Connor, and Helen McAlpine’s slightly – but only slightly – more sober Julie.

It’s a fine cast, deftly directed by Jennifer Dick; and their greatest achievement – amid all the rude hilarity – is to keep the play grounded both in the underlying seriousness of Diane’s wish to call it a day, beautifully conveyed by Foggo, and in all the reasons her death would still be a tragic loss to the little community around her, despite her own conviction that it’s all over, bar some pretty colourful shouting.

Perth Theatre’s new spring production The Rainbow – a beautiful bilingual work in Polish and English, based on the 1915 novel by DH Lawrence – shares a theme with Dookin’ Oot in its concern with women shaking off the shackles of marriage, and finding their own way in the world. The mood, though, could hardly be more different in this gentle two-and-half-hour epic by writer Nicola Werenowska, with exquisite music and songs by composer Ela Orleans.

First conceived as a co-production with theatres in England, The Rainbow now forms part of Perth Theatre’s own Polish Project, inspired by the city’s substantial Polish community, and part of the British Council’s 2025 UK/Poland season. Directed with tremendous lyric feeling by Jo Newman, the play traces the story of Ursula Brangwen, Lawrence’s young heroine, and of the two previous generations of women who helped make her; her Polish refugee grandmother Lydia, and her mother Anna, Lydia’s only surviving child from her life in Poland.

Moving from song to poetry to ordinary dialogue, on a beautifully lit shifting set, Werenowska’s play perfectly captures the abstract and sometimes visionary quality of the ideas about love, society and sexuality that Lawrence explores in his novel, with its still-revolutionary focus on the nature and power of female desire. And it is passionately performed by a company of six actor-singer-musicians of Polish heritage, led by Kate Spiro as Lydia, Jessica Dennis as Anna, and a compelling Rebecca Brudner as Ursula; a girl born in the 1880s in a quiet English village, but determined to reach out towards the new century, and – for women – a new world.

The Rainbow is at Perth Theatre until 8 March. Dookin’ Oot is at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, 4-8 March, Paisley Town Hall, 11-12 March, Johnstone Town Hall 13-14 March, and the Lemon Tree, Aberdeen, 18-22 March.