PPP: Night, Idiot
★★★☆☆ Compelling
Traverse: Tue 8 – Sat 12 Apr 2025
Review by Hugh Simpson
Night, Idiot by Zoe Bullock, the latest Play, Pie and a Pint from Òran Mór at the Traverse co-presented by Aberdeen Performing Arts, is a deceptively serious and emotionally intriguing piece of writing.
It starts off as a conventional domestic comedy. Dani (Bullock) and Paul (Andrew Barnett) welcome Paul’s mother Ruth (Pauline Lynch) to their new flat. Dani and Ruth don’t really get along (what with Dani accidentally trying to kill Ruth the first time they met) but Dani is determined to make a better impression. The next morning, however, Paul has disappeared.
Zoe Bullock. Pic: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan
There are some ingenious touches in Bullock’s writing, with the events of the previous evening replayed with slight differences, as Dani tries to find the Sliding Doors – style moment that precipitated Paul’s disappearance. Was it – as Ruth insists – that Dani was smothering him and crushing his ambition? Did that night-time remark of the title, repeated over the years, grind him down?
The repeated elements do lose their force after a while, and by the end the play seems to have dug itself into a hole that even a spirited (if overlong) re-enactment of Shrek can’t get it out of. Nevertheless, it’s a compelling and thoroughly promising piece of writing, all the better for not looking for easy resolutions either in terms of plot or thematically.
disparate elements
There are also moments of humour that are much better integrated than in most of those many plays that claim to be ‘darkly comedic’. However, that joke about confusing ‘barista’ with ‘barrister’ is very old indeed, and didn’t work in Scotland in the first place.
That the disparate elements come together so well is partly due to Shilpa T-Hyland’s measured direction, which really lets the play breathe, and to the performances.
Andrew Barnett and Pauline Lynch. Pic: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan.
Bullock’s energy as Dani is remarkable, and Lynch is strong in both the comedic and more tragic facets of the character. The character of Paul is a difficult one to pull off, as he is seen largely as he appears to Dani. He must appear content to go with the flow while still being credible as someone who wants to suddenly walk out, and Barnett’s authoritative presence and believability help with this.
ambitious
Gillian Argo’s set is a little more crowded than usual for Play, Pie and a Pint, and approaches the over-fussy, but is effective.
Much about this is more ambitious than the average PPP production, as what seems likely to be a gentle sitcom soon becomes more complicated. If the end result occasionally lacks polish, and sometimes comes across as unfinished, it is nevertheless of real interest.
Running time: 55 minutes (no interval)
Traverse Theatre, 10 Cambridge St, EH1 2ED
Tuesday 8 – Saturday 12 April 2025
Daily at 1.00 pm
Tickets and details: Book here.
The Lemon Tree
5 West North St, Aberdeen AB24 5AT
Tue 15 – Sat 19 April 2025
Tue – Fri: 6pm; Thurs, Sat mat: 1pm.
Tickets and details: Book here.
Zoe Bullock, Pauline Lynch and Andrew Barnett. Pic: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan.
ENDS
