Theatre review: Small World
Oran Mor, Glasgow ***
The question hovering around the drama is whether they should try to go back, to a country Pauli has never even seen; knowing that in order to do so, Max would have to give up his kingly aspirations, and accept a humble state-pensioned retirement.
In the main, though, the play seems designed to provide a memorable star vehicle for Jimmy Chisholm, who plays Max with a memorable mixture of old-regime melancholy, hypochondriac guile and sheer devilment; there is a genuinely hilarious sequence in which, with the help of a battered family tree on the wall, Max tries to talk Pauli through all their bonkers antecedents, with names like Vaclav the Unhinged and Ivan the Inexcusable.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdDaniel Cahill, though, also makes a fine Crown Prince Pauli, fond of his old dad but not quite defeated by him; and the result is a gentle 55 minutes of lightweight comedy that finally stays in its own small world, and takes us hardly anywhere at all.
JOYCE MCMILLAN
Final performance today.