Theatre                                                   The Evil Doers
		The Evil Doers Nick Curtiss at the Bush Theatre
		By Chris Hannan.  A Bush Theatre production.  Directed by Simon Usher.  Designed by Anthony Lamble. Lighting by Ace McCarron. Sound by Paul Bull. First performance at the Bush Theatre on August 28th , 1990. Tracky, Sharon Muircroft: Susan, Katy Murphy; Sammy, Tom Mannion; Tex, Douglas Henshall; Tourist/Lucy, LucyAston; Agnes Alison Peebles.
			Black comedy, like black coffee, is best served strong.  Chris Hannan’s comic Glasgow City story is presented by director Simon Usher as strong, bitter and funny as possible. From the moment maladjusted 15-year-od Tracky enters, accompanied by her friend Susan – full of imagined physical and mental complaints  and vacuous heavy rock nihilism in an attempt to make herself more complex and fascinating – Hannan’s play successfully negotiates the knife edge between comedy and tragedy. As the picture of Tracky’s home life becomes clearer, so do the reasons for her restless, thumb-biting twitchiness. Her Dad, Sammy (Tom Mannion), has chucked in his job at the factory to try and eke out a living as a taxi-guide to the City of Culture. Her mother (Alison Peebles) is an alcoholic who settles frequent family rows with either a hammer or attempted self-immolation.  The poor emotional and financial state of the family is exposed when Sammy encounters opportunist Southern journalist Lucy and loan-shark heavy Tex, the one hungry for a story , the other for repayment in cash or blood. Never beating a drum, Hannan’s story suggests there is more to ‘the friendly City’ than is written in the brochures. Usher’s direction is smooth and invisible; it’s only afterwards one realises how well he’s interpreted the play.  His handling of the mood swings and Hannan’s crisp, sharp dialogue is seamless, and he draws finely gauged performances from the casts. Muircroft’s Tracky is enthralling to watch at all times, and Katy Murphy makes Susan an infuriating mixture of egotism and gauche posturing; both actresses convince as 15-year olds. The latent friction in their relationship contrasts with the doomed attempts of Tracky’s family to communicate through memories of the past and responses to the threats of the present. Hanna excels in creating the most tangible threat, Tex. Neither making him a brainless strongarm man, or softening with sentimentality, the author gives him a headbanging past shared with Susan and feelings suggested by his wounded professional pride.  As the family chase past him, too intent on each other to fear him, he feels slighted: ‘Me who wades through pensioners in my sleep!’ Douglas Henshall plays the comedy and menace of Tex to the hilt; the theatre is silent as he coolly arranges heavy rings on his right hand, preparing to collect his debt from Sammy. The delineation of Tex is indicative of the care taken in the whole production. There is humour and sadness in the ever-hopeful Sammy, and a witty edge to the self destructive mother, Agnes.  Even Lucy’s brassy confidence is not all it seems; abandoned by the by the scattering family and the knife-wielding Tex, her face contorts in fear at being alone and rootless in an alien city.  Hannan brings a poignant sharp edge to the domestic comedy, and Usher’s lucid production serves as timely reminder that the smiling face Glasgow shows to the world is not telling the whole story.