Out of the Bad
★★★
THIS year is the thirtieth anniversary of the occupation of the Caterpillar plant in Uddingston where, for 103 days in 1987, workers barricaded themselves inside the factory in an effort to save 1200 jobs.
Supported by UNITE the Union and the Caterpillar Worker’s Legacy Project, this two-hander was written by Anne Hogg, a playwright whose home sits on the site where the US company bulldozed the factory.
The memory of the strike continues, however, and the industrial action was a relative success, with workers securing a deal which included no immediate compulsory redundancies and better severance packages.
No doubt Hogg knows women like Mary Wilson (Kate Donnelly) who recalls the occupation to her daughter Danni (Keira Lucchesi) after a reunion with other women who supported the strike. The footage of the factory which introduces the piece may give the official story but it’s the details which Mary tells her daughter which are just as interesting. Just weeks after Christmas, the occupation couldn’t have come at a worse time in terms of the household budget. Presents for her husband had to be sent back.
Not that Mary’s man was in the factory, making the famous (and apparently now vanished) tractor which they painted pink and called the Pink Panther. He lay on the couch and cursed Mary for getting pregnant. Danni, on the way to visit her father, is shocked. More family secrets are revealed to a point which stretches credibility, but Donnelly and Lucchesi are fine, well-experienced actresses who can carry the show.
Until Aug 27, New Town Theatre, (V7), 3.25pm, £12, £10 concs. Tel: 0131 226 0000. www.edfringe.com
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