Theatre reviews: Night, Idiot | Little Women

Pauline Lynch as Ruth, and Zoe Bullock as Doni in Night, Idiot (Picture: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan)

Night, Idiot, Oran Mor, Glasgow ★★★★

Little Women, Festival Theatre, Edinburgh ★★★★

Like last week’s Play, Pie and Pint smash hit Dancing Shoes, Zoe Bullock’s new lunchtime play Night, Idiot begins by arousing some conventional expectations. Young couple Paul and Doni – he an aspiring writer working as a barista, she a high-flying legal assistant – are fussing around in their Glasgow flat, preparing for a week-long visit from Paul’s mother, Ruth.

Louisa May Alcott's Little Women is brought to life on stage

Predictably, Ruth doesn’t like Doni; and after an evening on the wine, makes pointed sitcom-style remarks about how unhappy Paul must be being a ‘kept man’, how his life is going nowhere, and how Doni’s biological clock must be ticking, since the couple have no children.

Over a long evening, Paul and Doni seem to take all this in their stride, with Doni delivering her usual blessing of “night, idiot” before they fall asleep; but when she wakes in the morning, Paul has gone without explanation, never to return. And this sudden lurch from comedy into potential tragedy throws Ruth and Doni into a new relationship, as they search for Paul, and gradually move from mutual hostility to grudging appreciation, and a certain affection.

Meanwhile, the search goes badly, with Bullock’s ingenious script obsessively rewinding fragments of that last evening’s conversation, in search of clues to Paul’s state of mind; and all of this is handled deftly and with feeling, in Shilpa T-Hyland’s production, by Andrew Barrett as Paul, Pauline Lynch as Ruth, and Zoe Bullock herself as Doni. There is no easy resolution to this tale; but if the message is about accepting change and moving on, then it’s beautifully conveyed by the two women in the foreground of the story – as well as by Paul, the man they both adored, who is both increasingly absent, and ever present.

In the annals of literature for girls, there has probably never been a book more influential, or more wildly popular, than Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, first published in New York in 1868. Absurdly sentimental and pious by 21st standards, Alcott’s story of four sisters growing up in genteel poverty in 19th century Massachusetts somehow overcomes all that with the sheer energy of its storytelling, and the vividness of its contrasting characters, set against the sombre backdrop of life during the American Civil War.

All of this is faithfully reflected in Anne-Marie Casey’s stage version of the story, now on a UK tour. With a cast of just eight, and no aspirations to become a big-scale musical – despite some beautiful hymn-based choruses – Loveday Ingram’s production sometimes seems a little swamped by the sheer size of the Festival Theatre; but in true Alcott style, it rolls up its sleeves and gets on with the famous story of the March sisters, Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy, and their very different paths towards coming of age.

So Jade Kennedy’s pretty Meg marries and becomes a happy wife, Catherine Chalk’s frail Beth reconciles herself to a short but loving life, Imogen Elliott’s spoiled youngest sister Amy gradually finds wisdom and happiness; and our heroine Jo – rebel, tomboy and aspiring writer, played with terrific energy and feeling by Grace Molony – succeeds in carving her own way, in a society that, back then, prided itself on being more open to independent women than its old-world counterparts.

The show also features some outstanding work from Honeysuckle Weeks as the girls’ beloved mother Marmee, and Belinda Lang as their wealthy and terrifying Aunt March, with Cillian Lenaghan delivering a fine romantic portrait of their rich-boy neighbour Laurie. And on Ruari Murchison’s effective ever-shifting set, all of this is delivered at a no-nonsense pace that covers the entire story of Little Women and its sequel Good Wives in two and three quarter hours; in a show that’s almost half an hour longer than advertised, but – for those who care about women and their stories – worth every minute.

​Night, Idiot at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, 8-12 April and the Lemon Tree, Aberdeen, 15-19 April. Little Women at His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen, 13-17 May.