Someone's Knocking at The Door: A Heartwarming Theatre Experience

Two actors performing on stage, one woman in a teal sweater and flared jeans, and a man in a dark shirt and beige pants, both smiling and gesturing. The background features a colorful set with a clothesline, decorations, and two lawn chairs.

Written by Milly Sweeney

Directed by Sally Reid

Review by Libbi Hutton

Nostalgic, heart-warming and dynamic, writer Milly Sweeney’s sold out run of original two-man play ‘Someone’s Knocking at The Door’ is a perfectly paced, comedic insight into interpersonal relationships.

The play’s genius lies in its character development and the subsequent illumination of wider issues; Sweeney captures the gender and age of both performers perfectly. Poking fun at masculinity in a light-hearted manner, we are gently encouraged to criticise gendered differences in their appropriate contexts. Maureen Carr as Kathy explains how, in disliking her role in the couple’s troublesome marriage, “I had to worry because he didn’t”, their relationship broke down. Especially relatable for many women, we are presented with the striking distinction between disliking a person and disliking who one becomes with that person.

These universal lessons represent the wisdom in Sweeney’s writing and its applicability to all audience categories. Impressively tying all loose plot ends together in an hour’s representation of a 50-year relationship, and with lines such as “It’s too easy to fall in love”, Milly Sweeney’s writing should soon be gifted on a much larger stage.

Maureen Carr as Kathy and Jonathan Watson as Jack demonstrated a brilliant comedic chemistry, aided by director Sally Reid. Excellently directed scene changes and sound effects aided the comedic pace, with a basic but versatile set design representing various locations within the 50-year time period. Nostalgic and invoking bitter-sweet memory of youth, this play seemed to contain another layer of entertainment for elder audience members. Yet for all theatre goers, a relatability in the portrayal of the archetypal grandparent character can be found. Jack’s obsession with The Beatles is both loveable and exasperating; especially in his often emotionally insensitive compulsion to randomly blurt relevant song hooks in serious moments. Yet, we find this innocent passion heart-warming in its relatability to those love-hate vices we endure in our relationships with loved ones.

A Play, A Pie and A Pint is a brilliant one-hour show initiative that exclusively exhibits new plays, with a free pie and drink included in the ticket price. Well worth your time, head down to the Òran Mór to support the latest writing. You might just catch something as special as ‘Someone’s Knocking at The Door’.

‘Heart-warming and Dynamic’

Someone’s Knockin’ at the Door runs at Oran Mor until February 28th.
Running time – Fifty minutes without interval

Photo credit: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan

Review by Libbi Hutton – contact@corrblimey.uk

Libbi is an aspiring journalist and creative based in Glasgow. A graduate of Social Anthropology from the University of Edinburgh, she is particularly interested in politically engaged and experimental arts. Outside of reviewing for Corr Blimey, Libbi spends her free time making music, both in bands and on her own, which has recently developed into a passion for writing an original musical. A lover of all-things-performance, Libbi welcomes the opportunity to indulge in the world of theatre.