An award-winning Edinburgh Fringe comedy does the rounds of Cyprus
“CHECK Your Coupon,” says the poster put out by Rubber Ear Productions – I would add one more and that is check your diary for this is one of those ‘must see’ productions. Written by, directed by, and starring Kathleen Ruddy, it is a wonderful Glaswegian meze of a play, first served up at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2001 where it won three awards: the BT Award, the Edinburgh Festival Award and the Scotsman Fringe First Award.
With a pedigree like that it is no wonder that the Scottish media gave it rave reviews: “A belter of a comedy”, “An odds-on favourite” and “Brilliant! Played with insane inspired gusto” to quote The Scotsman, BBC and the Glasgow Herald. Last performed in Glasgow’s West End last year prior to a UK tour it is now time for a tour of Cyprus taking in Polis, Paphos, Larnaca, Pissouri and Nicosia, with, just maybe, a performance in Limassol if one can be arranged.
The author has created some sharply drawn characters, given some very witty lines to say and wrapped the whole thing up with a generous coating of Glaswegian humour, which I am glad to say does translate. The story concerns a fund which has been set up to raise money to send a young lad to America for a life-saving, but expensive, operation but funds are very slow to come in until the priest leaves a collecting tin in the village betting shop where Sheena, Lily and Nuala work.
Lily (Lorraine McGowan) can best be described as a down-trodden hump-backed pensioner with bad teeth and an abusive husband but she is as crafty as wagon load of monkeys and apparently had a very interesting past.
Her best friend Sheena (Kathleen Ruddy) is a leopard-skin clad glamourous granny who can put anyone down with a cutting one-liner and who has survived more marriages than Zsa Zsa Gabor, turning bed-hopping into an art form jumping, in and out of them with the speed and agility of a fiddler’s elbow and enacting the Kinsey Report en route. Her niece, Nuala (Andrea Leigh) is something of a hypochondriac, which is no great help when the three ladies find themselves in a life-threatening situation.
Without gving too much away suffice it to say that it involves a failed alarm system, a crucifix and a leaking tank.
It was interesting to learn that Andrea so wanted to play this part that she flew to Cyprus at her own expense to attend the audition and luckily got it. Andrea also plays the part of the village hooker – something I find amusing to think that a village should boast such a lady!
It is at this point that the parts of the literary meze come together – the audacious betting scam, the mystery surrounding Lily’s husband – has he disappeared or has he been murdered? The scam was conceived to help finance the boy’s operation but nevertheless was a crime and Lily feels so guilty that she confesses her involvement and gossip soon spreads it around the village quicker than Paul Revere and soon everyone is trying to get a share of the action, including the priest and the aforementioned hooker. I won’t say how the play ends but just to say that in spite of the doors to the room being locked Alex Mita still manages to make a brief (and how) appearance as a male stripper.
This is a wonderful play encompasing pathos , mystery, tension, crime, relief but throughout runs the theme of hilarious comedy and I should be surprise if anyone can sit through it without laughing heartily. Just one word of warning if you are going to the Coral Bay venue the amphitheatre is built of stone so unless you are amply padded in the nether region take a cushion.
l Rubber Ear’s Check Your Coupon. July 1 and 2 at the Polis Cultural Centre. July 3-6 Paphos Crown Resorts Hotel, July 7 Larnaca Theatre Antidote, July 8-9 Pissouri Amphitheatre, July 10 Nicosia Theatro Ena. All performances start at 8pm. For tickets 99 428599/99 908434. £10.00 or £8.50 for senior c itizens
