WHEN the banners were finally unfurled for the launch of Clyde Nouveau -- a property development, natch -- they looked strangely familiar to those who had taken the trouble to read their programmes. For there, in the same mock CRM script, is the ad for the cultural capital of Europe 1990 with that slogan.
Iain Heggie's new play, in this production by the Tron Theatre, isn't simply a reaction to the new Glasgow, but gives the contradictions that face the city a human dimension by mirroring them in the dilemmas faced by young Danny Noble, trying to go straight after a stretch in jail. He is faced with the choice between saving the orphanage where he was brought up and ''investing'' in redevelopment and turns his back on his past.
As trailed, the play takes some of its structure from Jonson's Alchemist, but the Doll, Face, and Subtle of the piece, the directors and employee of Clyde Nouveau, have little of the charming roguery of their antecedents, and the best lines go to their working-class victims.
As Noble, Douglas Henshall brings the script to life with his first appearance and his command of the dialogue is superb, with a sense of timing that makes the most of every line. At times the exchanges are hilarious -- notably in Noble's interview with Catriona Steel (Muriel Romanes) -- but the pace does tend to flag in places and the farce element of the movement is not quite slick enough yet (and rather lost in the depth of Graham Johnston's set).
Still, Heggie's words are as remarkable as ever, and there is a rich vein of sexual humour, revolving largely around the two slang meanings of ''straight'' that the cast are only just beginning to mine.
KEITH BRUCE, The Herald
16 Aug 1989