PLAYWRIGHT Alan Bissett is set to perform a “Moira Marathon” across Scotland this year in a celebration of three modern classics of Scottish theatre.
Since 2009, Alan Bissett’s series of shows about Moira Bell – single mother, cleaner and Falkirk’s Hardest Woman – have been garnering rave reviews.
Now, for the first time, Bissett will be touring all three shows as a one-night spectacular, giving audiences the chance to experience Moira’s hilarious journey in a single sitting.
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With the original Moira Monologues set against the background of the 2008 financial crash, to More Moira Monologues touching on Scotland’s independence referendum, Trump and Brexit, to the focus on the pandemic in Moira In Lockdown, these modern Scottish classics trace a tumultuous 12 years in history as seen through the eyes of a working-class woman from Falkirk based on Bissett’s own family members.
All three plays have been a hit with audiences and critics alike with the second instalment, More Moira Monologues, winning a Fringe First and on the shortlist for Best New Play at the Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland (CATS).
Bissett said that from the first moment he stepped onstage in the high-heeled boots in 2009, he “absolutely loved” performing as Moira Bell.
“There’s a great freedom to playing someone who just ‘tells it like it is’ and who audiences respond to with such enthusiasm,” he said.
However, it was only after the two sequels to the original Moira Monologues, in 2017 and 2022, that Bissett realised he had a trilogy – one story about the same character, which takes place over 13 years.
“I figured that audiences might want the chance to see, in one sitting, how Moira grows and changes over that time,” he said.
“So many people have said, ‘Oh, I’ve seen parts one and three but not two’ or ‘I’ve seen parts two and three but not one’ so now I’m making it easy for people to see them all.
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“It’s going to be an epic undertaking for me, and I’ll have to get a bit more fit for a three-hour performance, but I think it’s what everything’s been building towards since that very first performance in 2009. Here’s hoping the high-heeled boots still fit me.”
Audiences can catch up on any shows they have missed over the years – or relive them all again – at Dumfries Theatre Royal, Eden Court (Inverness), Websters Theatre (as part of Glasgow Comedy Festival), Mull Theatre, Macrobert Arts Centre in Stirling, and Perth Theatre, between February and May 2024.
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