WHAT if two Scots icons such as Jimmy Reid and Edwin Morgan met on the other side?

 

What if the trades unionist and the poet, who died within days of each other in 2010, found themselves in a waiting room, and began to reflect on life.

What would they talk about? Poetry? Politics? Lives and loves?

This tantalising prospect can now to be enjoyed this week at Oran Mor via Alan Spence's new play, No Nothing.

The play, which offers an affection nod to Waiting For Godot, stars Kevin McMonagle as Morgan and Steven Duffy as Reid.

"I don't think either of the characters had a particularly strong belief in the afterlife," offers Kevin, one of Scotland's top theatre actors.

"But that makes for an even more interesting discussion about why they are there.

"The play is called No Nothing for a reason, and that's the conceit. It's about the idea when we leave this life there is nothing . . . or is there?"

Edwin Morgan worked in a wide range of forms and styles, from beat poet influenced The Death of Marilyn Monroe (1962), which was 'an outpouring of emotion after the loss of one of the world's most talented women.'

He also wrote of the world he knew in poems such as The Billy Boys, a 1968 flashback of gang warfare in Glasgow in the thirties.

Later he wrote of his sexuality in many famous love poems.

Jimmy Reid was one of the leaders in the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders dispute in the early seventies and became a national figure as a result. He went on to work as journalist and a broadcaster.

Did the pair actually meet in this life?

"I'm not sure," says Kevin. "They may have met but this piece is imagined.

"And it's interesting because they as they come to assess where they are, the discussion moves on to talk about Scotland and where the nation is right now. And of course where we are going.

"What's great about the play is of offers the chance to view the the many facets of the Scottish personality through these two characters.

"But while the two men are very different, they form a bond within the play, and this perhaps mirrors an idea that somehow they will come together when the move onto the next place."

He adds, smiling; "Wherever that may be."

Alan Spence's play may be set in this departure lounge to the final destination, but the talk is very much focused around the seventies, the pair's heyday.

"It's the time in their lives when they are flying high, men in their prime," says Kevin.

What's it like playing not only a real character, but one who is so iconic?

"I've never played a real person before," he admits, smiling.

"But the process does make you think because you are aware the person is familiar to so many people.

"You have to factor that in," he says. "And because we read Eddie Morgan's poetry at school that adds to the challenge, I guess."

Kevin, who lives in London and has 'a wee place in St Andrews' began acting life with Strathclyde Theatre Group.

"I was involved in technical stuff, building sets and things because of friends who were associated with the group.

"And it grew from there."

It grew like a beanstalk. Kevin McMonagle has had a prolific career, from the Tron Theatre in Glasgow he moved to London and worked at the Royal Court. He's had star reviews for the likes of his Citizens' Theatre appearances in plays by Beckett and Moliere.

He's also appeared in a range of TV roles, from Bramwell to Coronation Street to Heartbeat.

"I guess it's given me a good profile," he says of television, "but these things are quite fleeting. You pop in and out of telly."

Does a good TV role mean the phone rings off the hook with work offers?

"No it doesn't," he says with a wry smile. "There is no logic to what you do in acting.

"Sometimes the best jobs have led to nothing. And sometimes the things no one has seen can lead to something.

"I've played the lead at the Royal Court - and then been out of work for nine months. You wonder 'What did I do wrong?'"

Kevin, who also teaches drama, adds; "That doesn't mean I don't love what I do. And I think it's a craft. I think you get better at it the more you do it.

"And it's just about keeping your shoulder to the wheel."

He adds, smiling; "It's not the job that's hard. It's getting the job."

€¢ No Nothing, Oran Mor, until Saturday.