PPP: Ivor
★★☆☆☆ Well-meaning
Traverse: Tue 15 – Sat 19 Apr 2025
Review by Hugh Simpson
Ivor by Jennifer Adam, the last in the current season of Òran Mór’s Play, Pie and a Pint at the Traverse, is a lively but ultimately confused piece of theatre.
Scarlet (Alice Glass) receives an unusual 21st birthday present from mother Sarah (Laura Harvey) – an iceberg. Ivor (that’s the iceberg) fills up the kitchen, and some of the surrounding area. Scarlet, however, doesn’t want to stay and look after Ivor, as she and partner Jude (Betty Valencia)have their hands full with environmental activism.
Betty Valencia, Laura Harvey and Alice Glass. Pic: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan
What starts off looking like a piece of cheerful absurdism soon encompasses the climate emergency and mother-daughter bonds as well as veering off into sitcom territory.
Unfortunately, none of these strands becomes fully developed. The absurdist element just peters out, while the political content is undoubtedly well-meaning but never really goes anywhere. The more emotional content is hampered by the lack of nuance in the characters. There are some funny lines, but the comedy also suffers from resorting to cliché; yet again, we are expected to find just saying the word ‘vegan’ hilarious. The result is simply confused, and the ending does not work.
considerable sympathy
There is plenty of life in the performances – Harvey’s mother, overprotective to the point of sociopathy, is beautifully expansive, while Glass gives the daughter considerable energy. Valencia is given little to work with, as her character is the least rounded, but she gives the role considerable sympathy.
Alice Glass and Betty Valencia. Pic: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan
Catriona MacLeod’s direction is endlessly spirited, but never manages to paper over the cracks in the storyline. There are also problems with Heather Grace Currie’s design, impressive as it is. Ivor dominates the acting area, but this does lead to the odd problems with sight lines for some of the audience (after a few weeks in the main theatre, this production is back in Traverse 2).
Too many directions
It is absolutely necessary to have plays dealing with the climate emergency; there should be more of them. The ones that have been most successful recently have been those like Douglas Maxwell’s Sheriff of Kalamaki, where such concerns are embedded in a strong narrative. Here, the play pulls in so many directions at once that ultimately it doesn’t know where it’s going.
Running time: 50 minutes (no interval)
Traverse Theatre, 10 Cambridge St, EH1 2ED
Tuesday 15 – Saturday 19 April 2025
Daily at 1.00 pm.
Details and tickets Book here.
Alice Glass and Laura Harvey with Betty Valencia. Pic: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan
ENDS
