Any Given Day

Linda McLean's latest work is semi-accurately described in the blurb as "a heightened riff on urban isolation"; the sparse, everyday language of her characters has a densely patterned musicality but what isolates the man and woman in the first of these two linked playlets is prejudice: the foul antagonism of vicious youths towards Sadie, the "fucking fat-arsed spastic". The pair (the nature of their relationship is not clear) are touchingly portrayed by brother and sister Lewis and Kathryn Howden, but while the violence their characters suffer is shocking it is also painfully contrived. This is less a drama, more a vivid illustration of the problems of people with disabilities. In the second part, a creepy boss (Phil McKee) and his highly strung employee (Kate Dickie) are isolated emotionally. Given the way they speak, in portentous staccato phrases, this is not surprising. The heavy-handed attempt at dramatic irony in the flimsy connection between the playlets brought a maudlin resonance to this unconvincing encounter.