SMALL ACTS OF LOVE | CITIZENS THEATRE, GLASGOW
★★★★★
“An emotional watch… and Scottish theatre at its finest…”
There are some moments in life that live on in the memory, the mere mention of them enough to transport you back to when and where you were as the horrifying nature of what was unfolding dawned.
For some, the assassination of JFK was the first such moment, more recently 9/11 silenced the world, but it’s to the 21st of December 1988, and the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, that playwright Frances Poet and musician Ricky Ross take us in Small Acts of Love, the heart-wrenching production that reopens Glasgow’s Citizens Theatre after its seven year long transformation.
Based on interviews with those bereaved by what remains the greatest loss of life in the UK in a single incident, Small Acts of Love is told by those who were there; from one of the first police officers on the scene to the lead ambulance man and the locals who, though suffering their own losses, washed and ironed clothes found from the disaster and boxed them up, along with belongings that survived the blast, so they could be returned to bereft families on the other side of the Atlantic.
Their actions, their care of the strangers, many young, killed in their midst, would go on to form an unbreakable bond of family, one that remains to this day between the people of the Dumfries and Galloway town and the loved ones of those aboard the stricken flight.
Poet’s script is a tender and beautifully poignant study of the pain, emptiness and hopelessness that accompanies grief. In shock, and initially powerless as the news breaks of the 259 souls on the pane and 11 locals lost become ever more real, the 14-strong ensemble cast are captivating as effortlessly they stride The Pond and some 30 years, doubling up as the residents of Lockerbie and the parents and families coming to terms with the loss – more than half those who died on the flight were under 30 at the time.
With strong performances all around Hilary Maclean and Blythe Duff anchor the performance with intensely empathetic performances – their duet as Lockerbie resident Josephine Donaldson and Jeannine Boulanger, mother of 21-year-old victim Nicole, is profoundly emotional and epitomises the import of the production as a whole.
Other stand out performances come from Ewan Donald, Barrie Hunter, Holly Howden Gilchrist and Mandi Symonds. That said, the brilliance of Small Acts of Love is due to the chemistry shared by all the actors on stage. Each plays their parts deftly with fluid and sensitive direction by Dominic Hill, who ensures that even through the darkness, there are remain lighter moments allow precious release.
Ross’ music, played live by a spirited five-piece band under the direction of musical director Gavin Whitworth, echoes the mood throughout, whether sombre, haunting, anguished or uplifting, each song carries an often unexpected emotional punch, his lyrics never failing to compliment the action while driving the story forward.
Played out on Tom Piper’s open and homely set design, Small Acts of Love is a powerful piece of theatre with compassion at its core, a compassion that looks to the future while remembering those taken in one of the darkest acts of recent times. It’s an heart-wrenching watch at times, which is exactly how a memorial to those lost should be.
Scottish theatre at its finest.
Ends 4 October. Tickets here.
