Two Doors Down: Live! (BBC Comedy Festival), Tron Theatre, Glasgow. Thursday 23rd May, 2024

Occasionally, I get lucky. I read about this event on the Chortle website as part of the promotion for the BBC Comedy Festival being held in Glasgow. By chance, I was on leave when the tickets became available. I thought it would sell out in seconds, especially as the Festival is primarily aimed at those in the industry, but somehow, I managed to snag two seats.

All nine members of the cast were present for the read-through of two episodes:  "Anniversary" (from series four, 2019) and "Vegas" (from series seven, 2023). Although the actors were reading their lines, seated in a semicircle on stage, their characters sprung to life straight off the page, their delivery familiar to all yet still piercingly funny. It was such a joy to be present for this. When the cast occasionally cracked up, triggered by someone's expression or a look, their laughs were contagious as we recognised that they were genuine. Kieran went further during the first episode finale, leaving his seat to throw himself into his expressive drunk dance, drawing bigger laughs the more outlandish his moves became. Definitely more Kieran than Gordon on display.

During the Q&A, the cast paid tribute to the writing, commenting that everything was there on the page. Elaine C. Smith told us how she came to be involved in the series; unbeknownst to her, the writers created the character of Christine specifically with her in mind. No one knew what happened to her offscreen husband. 

They paid tribute to Simon Carlyle, the series co-creator, who passed away last year, commenting he was often on set, watching every take, making notes and changing lines like a mischievous imp determined to bring out more funny. The cast often had to do over fifty takes for every scene (the record was seventy-three) so that every character's reaction could be captured for the edit. Grado admitted, having admired Jonathon Watson's comedy career for years, notably on Only An Excuse, that one day he nudged his hero just before the cameras rolled and asked him to do his Graeme Souness.  

Everyone in the audience wanted to know, "Will there be any more?" Unfortunately, the answer was unclear. Reading between the lines, it looks like Simon Carlyle was so integral to the production that it would be difficult to do more without him. The cast hadn't all been in the same room since his funeral (until today), which was bittersweet for them. They all want to do more, to put a bow on it, as Elaine commented,  but it is more likely to be on stage rather than on TV. 

I didn't take any pictures during the show. I was too scared. The ushers were like ninjas, pouncing on anyone who raised their phone. I did take a couple at the end, though. 

They obviously hadn't rehearsed the final bow.

Ticket Price: Free. (or should I say priceless?) 

Blurb

Two Doors Down Cast: The beloved cast of the award-winning sitcom “Two Doors Down” will bring the laughter to the stage as they perform episodes from the series and engage in a lively Q&A session.

Mark Thomas: England & Son, Tron Theatre, Glasgow. Saturday 16 September 2023

Blurb:

‘Any nation that devours another will one day devour itself.’

Set when The Great Devouring comes home, England & Son is a one-man play written specifically for the award-winning political comedian Mark Thomas by award-winning playwright Ed Edwards (The Political History of Smack and Crack) and the first play that Mark has ever performed in that he has not also written.

With some deep, dark laughs and some deep, dark love along the way, England & Son emerges from characters Mark knew in his childhood and Ed’s lived experience in jail. Prepare to be taken on a kaleidoscopic odyssey where disaster capitalism, empire, stolen youth and stolen wealth merge into the simple tale of a working-class boy who just wants his dad to smile at him.

Performed by Mark Thomas
Written by Ed Edwards
Directed by Cressida Brown

Ticket Price £17 (option B - the venue operates a dynamic pricing system with three price options - this was the middle one).

Mark has always been a great storyteller, seeking out the humour and farce in the grimmest corners of our culture, highlighting the wrongdoings of those in power, and sharing his passion for the ordinary people who go to extraordinary lengths to stand up for their rights. Throughout the years, his shows have matured into more theatrical pieces so this play seems a natural evolution for him, moving further away from stand-up into the realms of performance. Although he didn't write it, it was written for him so the material was a natural fit. 

He comes on in the first half with a chair and a mug, casually sitting in front of us to introduce the play with a tale about how he knows the playwright and how the pair work together to support an addict recovery group through classes in writing, comedy and storytelling. He introduces us to these addicts by going around the group, acting out their personalities from his chair mimicking their accents, mannerisms and physicality, as they relate their life stories through the three-act structure that Ed is teaching them. The irony is not lost on him that this section, prior to the actual play, is a stipulation from the venue to facilitate an interval so they can sell more alcohol. It's not a long half, lasting not much more than twenty minutes, but serves him well to warm us up.

After the interval, he has changed out of his initial apparel into his costume, a T-shirt and joggers, and the performance begins. He's on the floor, waking in a dumpster behind a Waterstone's pub as the reversing sound of a bin lorry gets louder. He manages to crawl out but his pal, Paul, is not so lucky. Then we go back in time to find out how he came to be there. It is a compelling piece with humour and pathos and an honest grimness about how someone can fall through the cracks, be rescued and still fall further. It ends with a satisfying, apt twist that I did not see coming. 

Mark gives a powerful tour de force. It's proper theatre. Many of the audience stand to give him the ovation he deserves. It's so good I'd love for someone like Ken Loach to turn this into a film. I'm sure Mark (and Ed) would love that too. 

photos from The Tron's social media feed.

    

Mark Thomas. ‘TRESPASS’, The Tron Theatre, Wed 13th April 2016

Mark Thomas is a political comedian, an activist, a trouble maker and, most of all, very funny. With an impish demeanour, he can be playful, indignant, raging and serious all in one sentence. Throwaway lines explode like comedic hand grenades. He prowls and parades across the stage, owning the space (an apt metaphor), commanding and demanding our attention for the words he speaks are a gospel of truth designed to open our eyes to the injustices around us (with wank gags: he assures us the political stuff is coming later).

In the first half, the fifty-three-year-old performs as his own support, describing what he was up to last year with his 100 acts of minor dissent. The audience supply him with four random numbers between 1 and 100 and he describes those particular acts from his book of the same name. They encompass things like having three female friends racing a pink remote control car on the pavement outside the Saudi embassy to rearranging the letters on the overhead banner promoting the films playing at the Curzon Cinema to highlight their policy of using zero hour contracts and paying less that the living wage. It was in this half that he notices an audience member lit up by his mobile phone. He then pauses the show to lecture the person about how, having paid for his ticket, he may feel entitled to use his phone but in reality, he was not only putting him off as the performer but he was also being rude to everyone around him who had also paid for their tickets. Such an act of selfishness could only be regarded as that of a Tory, he commented. This serious aside kept the mobiles away for the rest of the performance, a novelty.

In the second half, he starts the show proper. ‘Trespass’ is a show highlighting how our civil freedoms are being eroded by privatisation to such an extent that the very land beneath our feet is being sold off. A public footpath between the Thames and a high rise complex (30% occupied but 100% sold, at a cost from £2.5 million an apartment) has signs erected by the residents saying ‘No Loitering’. Mark takes umbrage with this curtailment of his right to loiter on public land and arranges a tea party with cake to encourage passers-by to stop. Then it escalates to a full-blown fete the following week when the residents complain.

He runs a 5K along the two public edges of the 15 metre triangle outside the RBS London head office to highlight that this former public pavement is now owned by RBS. He then attempts to get the walk recognised as a heritage trail. Just two examples among many that inform the show so I'm not spoiling too much.

The joy in his work is the way he uses absurdity to shed a light on injustice, which in itself can be equally absurd, e.g. Salford Council wished to introduce a swearing ban so he asked them to indicate which from a list of 240 words could he use during his show at the Arts Centre, not wishing to break the law. They replied he could use any of them because his show was art and they did not wish to curtail his freedom of speech. As such, he arranged a choir to sing a song consisting entirely of those swear words outside his show afterwards, a video of which appeared on the Mail Online with almost every word bleeped out (everything apart from ‘cunny’). Hilarious!

He is smart, witty, vulgar, challenging, righteous and preachy but right on the nose. He may be too old to flirt anymore but this audience loved him and his message. His three dates at the Tron are sold out and on the strength of this material, I can understand why.