On the 30th anniversary of theatre company Grid Iron, who specialise in site-specific productions, Andrew O’Hagan’s beloved novel Mayflies gets its first stage version (though there was a TV show made in 2022) in the warehouse of a former Leith metalworks factory.
Staged in the round inside what is now Brown’s of Leith, and true to the first half of the book, a group of Ayrshire lads in 80s Britain travel down to Manchester in its Hacienda heyday (the warehouse chosen for its resemblance) for one fateful night of hedonistic glee to remember. First to the stage aren’t the boys, though, but their grown-up counterparts, namely James “Noodles” Collins (Matthew Pidgeon) who narrates the book and play. His vantage point of decades later suggests a catalytic event has prompted him to revisit the event, and the looming spectre of his best friend Tully (Graham Mackay-Bruce) only accentuates the feeling.
Those who have read the novel will know what’s coming: a cancer diagnosis that will send into question their friendship and test their relationships. To say more than that would be to spoil it for the uninitiated, but both actors do a fine job of conveying the years between them and their younger selves, played with gusto by the charismatic Jude Baine (young Tully) and suitably geeky Kieran Devine (young Noodles).
It’s a resourceful production. The supporting cast of Paul McCole, Lucianne McEvoy, John McGeachie and Carmen Pieraccini all take multiple characters, just as the space’s iron skeleton doubles as a nightclub, swimming pool, family home and clinic with the switch of a light and some clever projections. No doubt the play, which sticks faithfully to the novel’s prose and is rather traditional beyond its rustic setting, will stand out even more strongly outwith its Edinburgh Fringe context, where boundary-pushing theatre surrounds.
Mayflies, Brown’s of Leith, until 30 Aug (not Tuesdays), 4pm