MAUREEN Carr’s last theatre adventure saw her fly 40 feet above the Hydro stage, wearing a fairy outfit, some very bad teeth and carrying a cheap guitar.

Rather surprisingly, she says appearing at Oran Mor this week is ‘far, far scarier’.

“No, it’s true,” the actress protests, smiling.

“When I was at the Hydro with the Still Game show, the place was so vast and the lights so bright you had no idea who can see you.

“At Oran Mor it’s so different. It’s a really intimate venue and you can see everything.

“That makes it all the more intimidating. But both venues are fantastic to play.”

The variations in an actors’ working life sum up the business; one minute you’re flying high in a surreal sketch with David Bowie’s Space Oddity playing in the background and 10,000 people laughing themselves silly.

The next, you’re in a Glasgow basement theatre with a crowd of 200 in a play with deliciously dark undertones.

Maureen is certainly delighted to be appearing in After The Cuts, Gary McNair’s new play.

Its set in 2045; “This may be the future, but it’s not one featuring robots and The Jetsons. It’s just like now, but a little more . . . less good,” say the theatre.

The play features Jim (George Docherty) and Agnes (Maureen), a couple who have worked hard their whole life and are looking forwarding to spending their retirement together.

But then Agnes is diagnosed with a serious illness. An operation would likely fix everything but now in 2045 the NHS as we know it is seriously broken.

The couple are desperate and Jim, a hopeful handyman, decides to try and solve the medical problem himself.

“It’s a dark play,” says Maureen, “but of course that’s where you get the comedy from as well.

“I’ve got an illness, and we don’t want to say what it is, but the real story is about how these two people with very little money cope with it.

“Agnes is very angry. She’s a cleaner in the hospital but ironically she can’t afford to be treated in the hospital where she works.

“And George has to come up with something drastic to try and save her life.”

Maureen brings a huge range of experience to the role.

“I began with the Kirkie Players,” she says of the am-dram outfit in Kirkintilloch.

“I was 16 and my dad got me in because he knew someone. They’re very selective.

“I played Snow White and all the dwarfs were bigger than me. (She’s four feet nine and a quarter.)

“And I loved am-dram. It was a great training ground and it makes you realise there aren’t many places around these days where young people can go learn that doesn’t cost them a lot of money.”

Maureen, who plays Edith in Still Game, moved on to Scottish Youth theatre in 1979, then onto Perth Rep.

Along the way she’s appeared in theatre classic John Brown’s Body at the Tramway where she met her future partner Martin McCardie.

“I’ve never played the lead roles, I’ve always had the character roles, playing the working class roles.

“But once I did get the role of a posh girl daughter in the Admirable Crichton at Pitlochrie and I had to enter and deliver the line, ‘Oh, Father!’

"But I hadn’t been trained in Received Pronunciation and my vowels got mixed up into Glasgow and out came ‘Oh, Faither!’

“But I’ve had some great jobs, such as Tartuffe at the Lyceum and Dolly in the Steamie.”

Maureen is also one of the women behind Witsherface.

“It’s a group of around 40 of us, actors, directors, editors, who all do comedy.

“We’re not anti-men, we’re pro-women, and the idea is to tour shows.

"We’ve already done shows at the Calton and readings of plays.

“The idea is we give women writers a showcase for their work.

“We’ve got a couple of shows coming up in Bridgeton in December.”

For the moment the focus is on Oran Mor, and the futuristic play which has its sensibilities in the worrying present.

But is it really scarier to do than the Hydro Still Game shows?

“Yes, and with Still Game and the flying wire stunt I was sworn to secrecy for weeks before. I was terrified I’d give the game away.”

Maureen adds with a wry smile; “What’s really scary is what the Government is doing to the NHS and those with low incomes.

“And last week you had Michelle Mone in the Lords voting with the Government for Tax Credit Cuts, putting a foot on the throat of the working classes. That’s really scary.”

• After The Cuts, Oran Mor, until Saturday.