Oran Mor writer reveals his mother's death inspired two plays.

No, it just looks that way.

Face, by Peter Arnott, is in fact two plays, but featuring the same subject matter, both starring Janette Foggo.

“Face is about two identical twin sisters,” explains the Bearsden-born writer, regarded as one of Scotland’s top playwrights.

“We are doing Face: Isobel one week and Morag the second week.”

Morag and Isabel are 60 year-old nice, middle-class ladies - but they are completely different.

One is married, the other isn’t. One has kids, the other doesn’t. One is a teacher, the other hates teaching, and indeed ‘thinks teachers are a pain’.

“It’s about two different attitudes to life,” says Peter.

“Isabel thinks she’s a positive person, but she’s also very angry, a journalist who writes a column who has a deep hostility at the basis of what she does.

“Isabel tries to be entertaining, but this is really a mask for her anger.”

Morag is a very different creature. “Isabel says Morag sucks the energy out of a room.”

Both plays see the ladies tell their own story, which is their version of recent events.

“Their mother dies,” says Peter. “It’s about family tensions and the setting is in fact, Oran Mor.

“The sisters have arranged to come and see Play, Pie and A Pint together.

“They plan to then chat about the Will afterwards but when they get to Oran Mor, they find they can’t face each other. What we have is each of them delivering a separate monologue, from different rooms.”

The play implicity examines the notion of DNA and independent free will. These two women are biologically the same, yet behave so completely differently to the same set of circumstances?

Is the play is about choices we make?

“Very much so,” he agrees. “Hopefully the audience will see that while the two sisters have very different points of view, they can see the similarities in both arguments.”

He adds, grinning; “And part of the reason for that is both women came out of my own head, and they’re played by the same actress.”

Was the writer’s head informed by his own experience of losing his mother?

“Yes, it was partly the loss of my own mother,” he says.

“And partly the desire to write with, and for, Janette, something to mark the fact we’ve worked together for thirty years.”

Was the writing prompted by the fact he’s been reflecting on how much he gave – or didn’t give - to his own mother? Could he have seen more of her? Called her more.”

“Always,” he says, in reflective voice. “Yes, that’s part of the process.”

There are other parent-offspring themes running throughout the Faces, offering real drama.

“Isabel has a key line in her play which says ‘Yes, you looked after mother but she liked me. She told you how good you were but she liked me.

“That line tells so much. And then there’s what happens with the money. Their mother has serious amounts of cash.”

The playwright smiles; “This wasn’t necessarily the situation with my own mother.”

But the sharing of the ‘spoils’ can create a distinct dynamic between siblings.

“Absolutely.”

Peter, at fifty-three, has two sons. “When I was in my twenties I was writing plays about a young man who’s angry with his father,” he says with a wry smile.

“As you get older your thoughts changed. This play was in my head and I had to get it out.”

Peter Arnott is one of Scotland’s most successful playwrights with credits such as The Boxer Benny Lynch.

His career began in 1985 and his work, much of which has a historical or political theme, has been performed across the Globe, from Moscow to New York.

His bio-play about singer Janis Joplin opens in London next week.

Peter however describes himself as ‘an actor with a typewriter.’

“I acted a lot at school and a student. And I actually did a one man show at Oran Mor, a monologue called the Inquisitor because the actor dropped out two weeks beforehand.

“On the opening day, I hadn’t been on stage for fifteen years and I forgot the script. This flush of panic began in my feet, went up through my body and my head exploded.

“It was a shambles. My thought was ‘I’m doing a Stephen Fry. I’m going to Belgium.’ And that experience that cured me of acting.”

His writing, he admits began as an attempt to impress girls, at the the Bearsden Episcopal Church Youth Fellowship panto.

“I stole most of it from Monty Python scripts,” he says, grinning. “And I didn’t get off with the girl.”

God was punishing him. “Yes, I didn’t please God, and my first review ever said ‘He has ruthlessly used the Youth Fellowship for political ends.’”

He adds, laughing; “Reviews don’t get much better than that.”

• Face: Isobel, Oran Mor, until Saturday.