Theatre: A Walk in the Park

A Walk in the Park is one of the recent highlights from Glasgow venue Oran Mor’s unsurprisingly successful 'A Play, a Pie and a Pint' series, dedicated to showing the best of Scottish playwriting. The tale of an aging melancholic man and his interaction with the Glaswegian environment, A Walk in the Park is a play of admirable simplicity, blending a dark and tragic life with the Scots' stoic belief in the relief offered by comedy.

As our protagonist takes a wander, the park’s bustling animal and human activity leads him to consider his own life of loss. Self-admittedly an alcoholic, prone to anthropomorphism and bitterly reflective, his encounters with wildlife, a young girl and (not surprisingly for a Glaswegian park) a bottle of Buckfast, generate a series of comic and tragic conversations.

A Walk in the Park, if a bit on the tragic-romantic side, manages to bring depth to a seemingly simple concept. The life of an old man and a Glaswegian park is made vibrant through the unashamed embrace of the Scots language, broken only by the New York accent of a grey squirrel. Excellently performed by a cast of four, A Walk in the Park showcases the vibrancy of Scottish playwriting.

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