Theatre review: Casablanca - The Gin Joint Cut

Casablanca - The Gin Joint Cut, Tron Theatre, Glasgow ****

THERE'S the unmistakable buzz of a real popular hit around the Tron this week, as the theatre revives Morag Fullarton's 50-minute stage version of the 1942 film classic, in advance of a run at the Edinburgh Fringe. Fullarton's show takes a simple concepts – retelling a well-loved cinema story on stage, with comically limited resources – and spins it into pure theatre magic, now accompanied by a brief introductory B movie which both celebrates the old-fashioned Hollywood western, and allows actor Jimmy Chisholm to offer his extraordinary impression of Groucho Marx.

When it comes to the main feature, the secret of the show's success lies in its combination of anarchic stage send-up and real passion for the essence of one of the great screen love-stories. The audience loves all the showbiz in-jokes about three clapped-out Scottish actors trying to perform a wartime epic like Casablanca on a shoestring, and in a no-smoking zone. Chisholm's quick-changes are particularly hilarious and impressive, as he switches in a trice from the role of Resistance hero Victor Laszlo to the sleazy police captain Renault, and back again.

What makes this show special, though, is the eloquence with which Fullarton's fine cast also capture the power and poignancy of the romance between the hero Rick and Laszlo's lovely wife Ilsa, played with no small subtlety by Clare Waugh in a superb hat, and a magnificent Gavin Mitchell, in the Bogart role. Kenny Miller's set – Rick's Bar, with occasional sorties elsewhere – is small but vivid; and the whole show gives its audience the kind of hearty laugh – laced with a few tears, and presented with real skill – that is in short supply at the moment, and that adds up to a memorable good night out.