When Billy Met Alasdair
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
New Play by Alan Bissett
This website does not give out stars but this is a five star play!
I wanted to be among the first to talk about what a good a show this is from Alan Bissett. A tour de force of writing, there is no doubt about it, and his performance is excellent. There is such comic and emotional value in this one man show, it has all the makings of a classic.
What you know you are going to get, you get: Alan Bissett performing as Alasdair Gray and Billy Connolly, with a beautifully concise and emotional script.
On top there is much more in terms of meditation on artistic motivation, deep hilarity and sadness, explorations of the famous but tragic Gray psycho-sexual world, and an entire side section that encapsulates the backgrounds and works of these impactful Scottish men — and one that would certainly please Gray himself in terms of textual and performative comment.
Last night's showing of When Billy Met Alasdair (on at The Scottish Storytelling Centre 8:30PM until 23rd August get tickets here) turned out to be Alan Biissett's first actual run through of the show, but we had no idea of that. What we saw was raw brilliance. This is an absolute masterpiece in several ways at once and one of the best show's of this year's Fringe, surely.
It is understandable that constant Billy Connolly impersonating is going to take a toll on a man's throat. Alan confessed to the audience at the end of the performance yesetrday evening that there had been a few last minute issues with Mr Connolly in his windpipe, these last few days,
But as I say the audience were absolutely unaware of this. I've been in Alan's audiences several times now over the Moira years, and I know what pleasure and delight it is to be in the palm of this man's hand, which is where we all are for the duration.
Alan has created an encounter, a theatre piece and at least three performances that are spot on. Yes there is a welcomed third character in When Billy Met Alasdair, but there are also pricelss asides and incdiental marvels. Alan presents the publisher Spencer Curtis Brown reading a rejection letter to Gray in 1964, and for me it was one of the most supreme moments of a captivating and entrancing perfromance. From time to time Alan Bissett inhabits his subjects so profoundly it is wonderful to behold.
Perhaps the most supreme of these moments are when he shares Alasdair Gray's expressions of his supreme and vivid artistic vision. When Alan explores Alasdair Gray's upbringing and delves into the aristic drive that keeps Gray in particular motivated, we are all inspired and reach some kind of understanding of what it is like, in the artist's mind.
When Billy Met Alasdair is a brilliant item of theatre and of writing from Alan Bissett, with direction from Kirstin McLean. Every second is actively enhanced by the concentration on theatre craft the two have clearly worked on. Their work pays off, I highly recommend this show!
There were audience among us during the packed house preview show we watched on Thursday night, teenagers, Moira fans, other people I have come to expect at Alan Bissett shows, and there were many who had never heard of Alasdair Gray and some of the younger audience that had not heard of Billy Connolly either.
Billy Connolly must not be relentlessly clipped on TikTok and Instagram?
It was odd but the 16, 17 and 18 year olds had not heard of Connolly and I do not mention that to shame them — far from it. What was transformative was how everyone left the theatre, as you will, and as I did, with a deep admiration for and profound emotional connection with Billy Connolly — if you didn't have one already! Many of us, and certainly that includes Alan, are already bonded with the Big Yin.
So yes, to have not heard of these men and come away with such deep acquaniatnce with them is Alan's moment of genius. Because watching this show is to form the deepest of acquanitancews with both Alasdair Gray and Billy Connolly.
That said, Billy Connolly is a figure that is larger than life, and ambitious to take on. I think Alan does Billy brilliantly, although the deepest and most excellently observbed material does appear in Alan's Alasdair Gray performance, which is book-ended with some meta-textual fun stuff, powerfully lit I have to say — simple, sharp and effective stagecraft — and is a creation in and of itself, as the author and his subject do acknowledge.
The party I was in ranged from 17 years old to 83, I am not kidding. I am somewhere in the middle. It is an expression of how good Alan Bissett is at this that we all enjoyed it and understand it as one. A terrific show and it is my hope that this is trhe start of something great and I congratulation Alan and Kirstin on it.
If you did not know of the novel Lanark by Alasdair Gray, and asked me to describe it to you, you would never want to read it. You would listen to my rambling description of what that novel is and switch off and never want to bother with it.
Have Alan Bisset asking Billy Connolly to describe Lanark however and everyone in that audience, and this includes those who had not a clue who Gray was at the start of the evening — they now want to read this book.
A fantastic show and I urge all to see it!
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
Read more about the show at Alan Bissett's website