Good Things

by Liz Lochhead

"The artful way Liz Lochhead takes us there in her delightful new play is as funny, as touching, and yet as emotionally true as anything this supremely humane writer has yet produced."-The Times (London)

A new romantic comedy from "Scotland's greatest dramatist" (Scotland on Sunday), this was a massive hit at Glasgow's Tron Theatre and toured the U.K. in 2004.

Genres: Plays

Paperback

First published September 1, 2005

About the author

Liz Lochhead is a Scottish poet and dramatist, originally from Newarthill in North Lanarkshire. In the early 1970s she joined Philip Hobsbaum's writers' group, a crucible of creative activity - other members were Alasdair Gray, James Kelman, and Tom Leonard. Her plays include Blood and Ice, Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off (1987), Perfect Days (2000) and a highly acclaimed adaptation into Scots of Molière's Tartuffe (1985). Her adaptation of Euripides' Medea won the Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year Award in 2001. Like her work for theatre, her poetry is alive with vigorous speech idioms; collections include True Confessions and New Clichés (1985), Bagpipe Muzak (1991) and Dreaming Frankenstein: and Collected Poems (1984). She has collaborated with Dundee singer-songwriter Michael Marra.

In January 2011 she was named as the second Scots Makar, or national poet, succeeding Edwin Morgan who had died the previous year.

Reviews

[TreforL · Rating 2 out of 5]

Located somewhere between farce and sit-com, this gently amusing script is set in a charity shop. On its first appearance in 2004, the play had a successful professional tour, its cast of entertaining characters divided between four actors. This means the same actor is playing women aged sixty, forty-five, forty, thirty and twenty-two, which may be a fun challenge but is also a tall order, especially as a couple of them are quite prominent in the story. In fact, the script lends itself better to amateur production, using more actors.
The story centres on the ironically named volunteer Susan Love, who is divorced and seeking dates online. There are convoluted storylines about shoes and ties being put into the wrong bag and suchlike, as an eligible male customer is back and forth, almost unnoticed by Susan. Some of it is well-worked and genuinely funny, though the whole piece has a recognisable triteness, safeness and narrative neatness about it. It seems to be aimed at the same mythical coachload of senior citizens, inexplicably presumed to be profoundly naive and uninformed about the world, that the One Show is targeting, who would freak out if a single swear word were ever used.
This is a play that needed to let its hair down and be more daring. In particular, the storyline that keeps Susan's gay sidekick, Frazer, firmly in the closet has not aged well. Also, anyone who has been employed by a charity shop in a paid role is likely to view with bitter irony the haphazard, laid-back work ethic depicted here.

[Patrick Neylan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A charming feelgood play about workers in a Scottish charity shop, looking for love, etc, etc. Amiable enough but lacking bite.

[Adam Stevenson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve been cast in this, it’s a pleasant romantic comedy. I’ve been describing it as the series dinnerladies without the swearing. I have a few roles but my main one is Fraser, where I get some fun lines and have to tap into my prissy self, which should be fun.

I reckon it’ll be enjoyable to rehearse and will give the audience an enjoyable evening out, but it won’t be one long remembered.

[Duncan Maccoll · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, be prepared to laugh, cry, laugh and then start again. So, this is what goes on in all those charity shops.

[William Cartier · Rating 4 out of 5]

A decent play though a bit too safe.