Our House

The music of Madness is not my usual genre, and the storyline of a split personality double-life ‘good guy, bad guy’ seemed ambitious, if not ambiguous, but Theatre Guild Glasgow managed to fulfil its requirements in both counts. Bobby Weston (Joe Casey) as the 16-year old tearaway intent on committing crime to please his girlfriend Sarah (Caroline Telfer) but running when the ‘cops’ turned up, must have lost weight in the week changing from ‘Good Guy’ in a business suit to ‘Bad Guy’ in a shell-suit and baseball cap as often as he did.  Showing both personalities and their paths in life kept the brain active working out the plots.  Throw in a deceased, speaking, father (Andrew Rodger) who wanted to be on ‘Strictly’ with wife Kath (Marie-Anne McGrattan) and the plot thickened.  Two brassy girls, Billie and Angie (Pamela Ross and Gillian Richerdson) kept a sarcastic comment throughout, and two mates from school, Lewis and Emmo (Sean McCafferty and Joseph Ash) the latter seemingly unable to make the right choice quite often, kept the action going, even when local ‘heavy’ Reecey (Ross McKune) strutted his stuff across the stage.

Being the vehicle for songs by the pop group meant that belief was suspended to a degree, but the full cast of 33 moved well with the music, with the choreographer’s participation, and the audience, some more having knowledge of the songs than I, a Luddite, kept the action going by joining in.  A cameo rôle from a stalwart injured in an earlier performance showed the grit and determination which this club gets from its more senior members, and is passed on.

The older I get, the more I find shows aimed at a younger, more ‘hip’ audience, but these still can let me appreciate the skill in performance of today’s NODA membership, and I rejoice in that.  The musical scene must evolve to suit its audiences, and this show certainly lived up to that, given the obvious enjoyment in Eastwood that evening.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.