PPP: Someone’s Knockin’ at the Door
★★★☆☆ Charming
Traverse Theatre: Tue 3 – Sat 7 Mar 2026
Review by Hugh Simpson
Someone’s Knockin’ at the Door, the first in the new batch of A Play, A Pie and A Pint from Òran Mór at the Traverse, is a well-performed and pleasing – if ultimately insubstantial – production.
Co-presented with Aberdeen Performing Arts and Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Milly Sweeney’s play features Kathy (Maureen Carr) and Jack (Jonathan Watson), who look back to 1976 in two separate online chats with grand-daughter Molly.
Jonathan Watson and Maureen Carr in Someone’s Knockin’ at the Door. Pic:Tommy Ga-Ken Wan.
In that long, hot summer, the couple took their first holiday since a hurried teenage marriage two years previously. They spent it camping near Campbeltown, where Beatle-nut Jack concocts the plan to seek out the nearby farmhouse owned by Paul McCartney.
McCartney’s connections with the area are well known, inspiring the Number One hit Mull of Kintyre. The title of this play is derived from the lyrics of another 1970s Wings song, Let ‘Em In, and McCartney’s whole 1970s period seems to be having something of a moment, with a recent book, a documentary and a CD box set.
The explanation of the attempt to meet Fab Macca is contrasted with the story of the strains on Kathy and Jack’s own relationship. Their two accounts of events – sometimes separate, sometimes entwined – are cleverly contrasted. Sweeney is already an award-winning playwright, and there is no denying that much of the dialogue is believable and emotionally charged.
set about it all with gusto
To discharge pawky, occasionally sentimental comedy with a serious edge, it would be difficult to think of two more reliable performers than Carr and Watson, and they set about it all with gusto. Sally Reid’s direction is wonderfully clear and well-paced, with Heather Grace Currie’s design being clever and evocative.
However, none of this can disguise the flaws. The comparisons between the couple’s story and that of the break-up of the Beatles are sometimes forced, while the facts about McCartney occasionally suggest diligent research that has been forced into the script rather than set aside.
Maureen Carr and Jonathan Watson in Someone’s Knockin’ at the Door Pic: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan.
While apparently ‘inspired by a true story’, some of the narrative does defy credibility. Jack claims to have fallen in love with the Beatles on hearing Love Me Do on the radio in 1962, and being struck by the harmonica and its bluesy feel, making it sound more American than bland British pop. Which would have made him something of a prodigy considering that if he was still a teenager in 1976, he couldn’t have been more than five then.
The temperamental differences between Kathy and Jack tend to be stated by the characters rather than actually demonstrated by their interaction, which makes the narrative arc less convincing.
The framing device (the online chats helping Molly with a project about ‘untold Scottish stories’) is all too appropriate for a play that ends up being a series of anecdotes as much as a coherent narrative. This episodic nature is only accentuated by the lighting and sound design of Ross Nurney which, while effective on its own terms, is often used to break things up.
It is an undoubtedly slight affair, and even at only 45 minutes seems stretched. However, it is diligently put together, and has a definite charm.
Running time: 45 minutes (no interval)
Traverse Theatre, 10 Cambridge St, EH1 2ED
Tuesday 3– Saturday 7 March 2026
Daily at 1pm
Tickets and details: Book here.
The Lemon Tree, Aberdeen, AB24 5AAT
Tue 10 – Sat 14 March 2026
Tue – Fri: 1pm; Thurs & Sat: 6pm.
Tickets and details: Book here.
Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Pitlochry, PH15 5DR
Wed 18 – Sun 22 March 2026
Wed/Thu, Sat/Sun: 1.30pm; Fri: 6.30pm; Sat: 4pm.
Tickets and details: Book here.
ENDS
