Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

Runway Theatre Company started life in 1967 as The Glasgow Airport Players, all members being staff at the old Renfrew Airport.  Until 2003, a pantomime was produced each year, then after a break in 2007, with many members not then being airport staff, the name changed to Runway Theatre Company.  In 2010 there was a breakaway from purely panto, and Camelot was produced in Glasgow’s West End, in a theatre on University premises, sadly no longer available.  The die was cast, however, and since then the company has produced a musical and a panto each year, each to great acclaim, as they have drawn on talent from all over the West of Scotland.

And WOW! this production of Priscilla certainly kept up the standards Runway has been nurturing for years.  Eastwood Park Theatre is not the biggest stage in town, but proved big enough to take one of the stars of the show — the bus which transported the three leading characters from Sydney to Alice Springs, through the various communities and characters they met on the way.  Tick, as Mitzi (Antony Carter), was the one who was slightly mixed up, being a female impersonator who had fathered a child he was anxious to meet.  Bernadette (Craig Glover) was a transsexual, worried about being ‘past her prime’, looking for love and living on past glories.  The third main character was Adam, as Felicia (Greg Robertson) managing to combine his rôle as principal with providing wonderful choreography for this talented company.  This trio manged to convey the characters convincingly without going too OTT with ‘camp’ actions, a difficult feat with such an outrageous plot.  Throughout, a trio of Divas (Lindsay Ross, Catherine MacKenzie and Heather Lennon) sashayed their way in long frocks across the stage, totally incongruous but not a surprise in this plot, and we met a host of different characters,  from Tom Russell as both a member of clergy and a macho bully, his wife Susan as a bar owner with attitude, disapproving of the performances from the main trio.  Bob McDevitt, love target of Bernadette but married to Cynthia (Susie Thompson McMahon) managing somehow to project ping-pong balls great distances, and Blair Cruikshank in another cross-dressing rôle were some of the many well-known faces in this well moved and sung, lively production.  David Dunlop’s direction of the many songs from various sources caused many in the audience (80% female, I would think) to hum or sing along, and Robert’s direction was absolutely fitting for the compllicated plot.  Susie’s son Finlay played Tick’s son Benji, (shared on some performances with Kai Kerr), a well-portrayed part played with confidence.

All in all one of the best performances I have had the honour of seeing over my many years as NODA Rep., well costumed by That Looks Good, with June Young and her crew having made many costumes in the style of the original film and also provided Wardrobe Mistress facilities.  The only question is possibly how can Runway manage to keep up such standards in the future?  I have no doubt that we will find out with the next production.

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