TWEED Theatre’s latest production, Men Should Weep by Ena Lamont Stuart, begins a three night run at the Eastgate Theatre next week.
A play full of pathos, humour and courage, it centres around the life of the Morrison family.
Maggie Morrison (played by Elizabeth O’Raw) holds the family of seven children together as well as working as a cleaner while trying to cope with the grinding poverty of 1930s Glasgow.
Her husband John (played by Graham Mackintosh) is unemployed and slowly sinking into depression.
“A' we’ve din wrong is tae be born intae poverty”, emphasises the play’s main theme, which still has relevance today.
A government determined to victimize the poor together with the social consequences of poverty make for bleak lives.
The role of women, then and to some extent now, is highlighted by Maggie and her daughters and sister, who all have varying ways of dealing with the effects of poverty and making a living.
The Morrison’s youngest child is diagnosed with TB, no doubt contributed to by the inadequate tenement housing and poor diet.
Other children in the household, played with great affect by local youngsters, add humour and sensitivity to an otherwise bleak prospect.
There is some light to be had, though, as John manages to get a job and the Greek Chorus of the neighbours, who pop in and out of the play, emphasises the role of community in tenement life and brings light relief.
Men Should Weep runs from Thursday to Saturday, September 7 to 9 at 7:30pm. Tickets are £10 and concessions £8.
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