PPP: Our Brother
★★★☆☆ Serious
Traverse: Tue 16 – Sat 20 Sept 2025
Review by Hugh Simpson
Our Brother by Jack MacGregor, the latest Play, Pie and a Pint from Òran Mór at the Traverse, is a tense political drama that is well acted but whose structure occasionally lets it down.
Bobby Bradley plays the naive but well-meaning, Scottish-born and London-based academic listed as ‘Stranger’. He is an apologist for the Khmer Rouge’s late 1970s regime in Cambodia, unwilling (unlike Nicole Cooper’s photojournalist) to believe the stories of genocide after their Year Zero.
His audience with the regime’s leader ‘Brother’, better known as Pol Pot (David Lee-Jones) might lead to him revising his opinions.
Bobby Bradley with Nicole Cooper and David Lee-Jones in Our Brother. Pic: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan.
Although clearly inspired by the true story of Malcolm Caldwell, the play is fictionalised, with Cooper’s character (known only as ‘American’) being a composite character, who narrates and speculates on what may – or may not – have happened to the academic.
While this rumination on the nature of truth and memory has real interest, the way it is staged has considerable drawbacks, with the actors sometimes literally pausing and rewinding in a way that your average student revue would think twice about using.
It is to Cooper’s credit that, even with such an ungainly device, the character remains so compelling. Indeed, all of the acting is very good indeed. Bradley’s portrayal of someone who desperately wants something to believe in is extremely touching, while Lee-Jones’s Brother is both plausible and scary.
taut
The political content of the play too often veers into discussions of the nature of revolution and revisionism for comfort. It is at its strongest when the characters’ motivations are most clearly signalled, such as when we see that Bradley’s character is sincere in his wish for a better world (as, worryingly, is Brother).
Nicole Cooper in Our Brother. Pic: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan.
Once the scales fall from Stranger’s eyes, the play becomes derailed to a certain extent. This is largely unavoidable, as there cannot be a single audience member who does not know that he is kidding himself, but the narrative does seem to run out of ideas at this point.
However, McGregor’s writing and the direction of Andrea Ling do ensure that the play remains taut through most of its running time. Heather Grace Currie’s design is inventive, and Ross Kirkland’s minimalist lighting is extremely effective.
Although it cannot always maintain it, the production has a praiseworthy intensity and seriousness of purpose.
Running time: 55 minutes (no interval).
Traverse (Trav 2), 10 Cambridge St, EH1 2ED.
Tuesday 16 – Saturday 20 September 2025
Daily at 1pm
Tickets and details: Book here.
ENDS
Comment
Carrie Todd says:
Sat 4 October 2025 1.40am
I saw the play, Our Brother, at the Traverse theatre in the Play, Pie and Pint season and I thought it was excellent.I read a review of it in your publication online and I was dismayed that your reviewer only rated it 3 stars.
I have to disagree with him on several points.
As a retired drama teacher and performer, I have followed theatre all my life so I am no novice.
I thought Our Brother was excellent and I would have given it 5 stars. The audience seemed to agree given the applause and standing ovation at the end.
The acting was very committed and it was very well cast. It was a well crafted script which was well paced to build to its dramatic climax.
The theatrical device of rewinding a film provided the only comedy in this hard hitting play and was very welcome.
The play was very thought provoking and timely.
The young playright shows tremendous pronise.
I thought the minimal staging was very well used and the use of the red darkroom lights worked really well as did the real photos of Canbodia projected onto the set.
There is a lack of plays about this tragic time and the younger generation are generally ignorant of the genocide perpetrated by Pol Pot.I really hope that this play can be seen by a much greater audience and that the review from All Edinburgh Theatre has not jeapordised its chances of reaching a wider audience.
All the best for your publication in the future.
ENDS
