A Play, a Pie and a Pint reveal Oran Mor line-up

Who could ever say the Play Pie and a Pint series of plays is never less than varied?

The new season begins at Oran Mor in Glasgow’s West End next week with five new plays.

However, the season will again include some of the production’s back catalogue of hits.

“The plays explore such varied topics as the sweet revenge of a woman scorned, a darkly comic tale of teenage angst, and the Tay Bridge disaster from the unique perspective of the signalman,” says a spokesperson.

“We look at fascinating stories of real life figure such as renowned psychiatrist RD Laing, Mary McGowan and champion cyclist Marco Pantani.”

Artistic directors April Chamberlain and Morag Fullarton launch the season with new musical Crocodile Rock, by Andy McGregor.

It’s set in 1997 and Steven McPhail is bored. Millport was alright - but he’s 17 now. However, everything changes when a chance encounter with an outrageous drag queen shows Steven a world he never knew existed.

The following week features From Paisley to Paolo. Martin McCardie’s play is set in 2006 and tells the story of 19 year-old Jack, who was born on the same day, in the same hour, in the same hospital as Paolo Nutini.

Jack goes to T in the Park in a stolen hearse with his two best friends Jack and Mavis. But will his best pal Paolo will be there to meet them?

Former Evening Times writer Kim Millar has a new play running from September Nine.

Number One Fan tells the story of Jan, whose husband just left her for a silicone-enhanced woman 20 years her junior.

When Jan reads Jack Bonham’s women-hating column, she decides to kidnap the journalist until he writes a column in praise of the Older Woman.

But somehow nothing goes to plan.

Berlin in the late twenties is also something of a disaster zone, at least where The Threepenny Opera is being developed. Young Jewish composer, Kurt Weill’s collaboration with Bertholt Brecht looks to be coming unstuck however, Morag Fullerton’s returning play Mack The Knife, reveals how the last minute inclusion of a hurriedly composed song sees the show become a resounding success.

Last minute decisions are central to the storyline of Peter Arnott’s play The Signalman.

Set in the winter of 1919, Thomas Barclay is transported back in time by his memories of the night when he was the Signalman who sent the Edinburgh/Burntisland train onto the Tay Rail Bridge 40 years before.

It asks the question; why do we need somebody to blame – even if it’s ourselves?

The week of September 30 sees the return of Marie Jones’ Fly Me To The Moon. It features the death of Davy, who has been looked after by care workers Francis and Loretta.

Davy loved a bet, we learn. But after he dies the women are faced with a gamble of their own; should they take the chance and keep Davy’s recent winnings on the horses?

Elaine C. Smith returns to Oran Mor in the week of October 7 to star in The Sweetest Growl, by Claire Nicol.

In the 1950’s, Gorbals-born Mary McGowan was the sensational singer with cult Scottish jazz band The Clyde Valley Stompers and was reckoned by Louis Armstrong to have one of the best voices in the business.

However, at the height of her fame, The Girl with the Sweetest Growl gave it all up to become a Glasgow housewife.

Did she have any regrets? And what prompted her return in middle-age for a triumphant reunion concert in her beloved native city?

Meanwhile, writer Ian Pattison delves into the mind of RD Laing as his hit play Divided returns to Oran Mor to ask questions of the world famous Glasgow-born psychiatrist.

Laing’s work redefined the relationship between patient and doctor. His book ‘The Divided Self’ brought him celebrity status.

But his theories were hugely controversial. Laing believed the family to be a potentially destructive force on the individual.

“We are effectively destroying ourselves with violence masquerading as love,” he wrote.

Divided focuses on a pivotal moment in Laing’s own, often troubled, family life.

Dave Anderson’s first play for Oran Mor A Walk In The Park returns, described as “Oran Mor’s first foray into Magical Realism”, and “a picaresque wander along the edge of the modern world.” Grappling with his computer and indeed the 21st Century a man resolves to write a letter. In the morning. But he’s distracted by a fox. . .

October 28 sees the return of Stuart Hepburn’s entertaining drama Marco Pantani: The Pirate

In 1998, the Italian cyclist was on top of the world but six years later he died alone in a squalid drug-ridden hotel room in Rimini.

David Harrower’s returning play Good With People Good With People is next in line and is set in Helensburgh “a haunting two-hander tracing one town’s path of personal and political destruction.”

It’s followed by Alan Bissett’s Do Not Press This Button, which tells of commuters Marie and Ben, who fall into friendly conversation on a train.

But things turn comical and then dark as Ben realises Marie is playing a psychological game with him.

Mind games are also played out in the final play of the season, running from November 8.

Benny Young’s Cranhill Carmen relocates the Carmen tale to Glasgow in the mid-fifties where the tobacco factory worker has to choose between two very different men.

And then it’s panto time, with Dixie Whittington – the Hamecoming. Oh yes it is.

Oran Mor, Byres Road, Glasgow.