Fringe Review: CATHY, Traverse 1 at Traverse Theatre
Photo credit: Mihaela Bodlovic
Eilidh Loan’s new play Cathy, staged at the Traverse Theatre as part of TravFest26, is a personal show for her. It’s not a fully true story but it’s inspired by her grandmother and how she dealt with grief after losing her husband. In the play, we meet a whole family (three generations) and look at how they all deal with grief in their different ways.
Loan’s writing is really quite remarkable. You wonder how a play about grief can be a comedy but Loan takes us from laugh-out-loud comedy to the emotional weight of grief within seconds. The emotional shifts never feel jarring and the play is in equal parts moving and entertaining. Loan also directs the play. It’s staged fairly simply but this puts the characters and their relationships centre stage, giving them lots of room to develop through the play.
Kenny Miller’s set is fairly simple but very effective. There are essentially two sets - Cathy’s home on one side and a charity shop on the other, revealed and hidden by curtains, with set pieces like chairs and tables cleverly being used in both. Despite the simplicity, the set also has a lot of detail included which grounds the piece in reality.
Scottish legend and star of stage and screen Elaine C Smith leads the company as Cathy. She proves herself to be an outstanding actress, executing the rapid shifts from humour to heaviness expertly. Despite very much being the headliner and who many of the audience are there to see, Smith never feels like she’s hogging the spotlight. The other members of the cast are also equally wonderful - it’s a true ensemble piece.
Sally Reid is particularly delightful as Lizzie, the manager of the charity shop that becomes the place where Cathy gets back on her feet. She brings so much warmth to the stage with her bubbly personality, whilst also capturing the pain that loss brings that you never truly get over. Chloe Hodgson is lovely as Cathy’s granddaughter Amy, clearly inspired by her grandmother even if there are some strains on the relationship at times. Michele Gallagher gives a powerhouse performance as Flo, the one in the family who wears all her emotions on her sleeve. Gallagher and Smith portray the ups and downs of mother-daughter relationships wonderfully. Alan Orr completes the cast as Colin, Flo’s husband, as well as other supporting roles. He plays the supportive son-in-law very well, as well as demonstrating great comic timing throughout the show.
Cathy is a lovely play, both heartwarming and heartbreaking, and a real celebration of the importance of family. We’re sure this run won’t be the end of Cathy - it feels like exactly the sort of thing that should be a BBC drama - and what a privilege it is to be able to say we saw it first.
**** Four stars
Reviewed by: Jacob Bush