Our Country's Good @ Tron

Roll up, ladies and gentlemen, roll up. As you watch, I shall perform an act of four fingers and one thumb criticism - save the jokes, son, I've heard them before. Using only my powers of memory and the digits on my hand, I shall review Our Country's Good, as performed on the Main Stage of Glasgow's Tron Theatre.

First I present my thumb - that all purpose digit that allows us to grasp, hold and hit the spacebar on our computers. The thumb represents, in meditation, the Universal Self. Being a humble critic, I have no idea what that means, so I take it to mean the direction. The work of the person who takes the blame, who tells the actors what to do... His name is Gerry Mulgrew and he is known for his work with Communicado, one of Scotland's bold companies that have been putting out classics, and more, for years. Does a bit of acting on the side, truth be told, and is very good at it, too.

Not much to complain about here: Mulgrew does nothing fancy with the script, has all the actors in the right places, keeps the pace tight - better in the second act, and adds a cheeky musical finale for fun. The doubling up of some roles may have been necessary, but too little is done to make it clear who plays whom at various points. Of course, the director is responsible for the casting, and there are a few problems here: one lad plays two roles both comic (and excellently) and tragic (dismal). The scene changes are generic, it is all well contained... it is a safe three stars out of five...

Now my index finger - meaning the individual self or, as I prefer, the performances. And here, gentles, we have problems. There are some rough routines in this prison drama. One accent travels the world, never arriving in the Devon it purports to represents, and there is even a bad Scottish accent (I would fix it somewhere around Aberdeen in intention, and around the level of an extra in Taggart in result). There are solid performances from David Kirkwood as a funny little sexually frustrated man, and Jess Thigpen as the bad-ass bitch made Pygmalion-style lady by acting, but there is also someone playing a jew who rubs his hands together throughout... and that really bugs me. Overall, two stars, since the weak performances prevent deep engagement.

Better get onto the right finger: the scenography (also known as the tech stuff). Music fades in and out between scenes - pretty predictable, but done effectively. Nice stage set - gives the action two layers to play across, and the bottom part is a good prison, officers' quarters, grubby hut. Lighting - evocative and discreet, giving us another three stars.

Ah, the text, the middle finger. In this case, the text is a script: Timberlake Wertenbaker's, and it is a cracker. I intend to come back to the script later, but it is a good four stars, able to survive despite the wandering attention of the performers...

The little finger is ethics, but this is already running long. Let's say there were no problems - which reads as a three. Add up the results, divide by five, and we get a three star show. That doesn't quite match my experience, so perhaps this magic process has flaws... or I am wrong about one of my categories....