Wiping My Mother's Arse, Pitlochry review: 'brilliantly funny and pointed'

Wiping My Mother’s Arse, Pitlochry Festival Theatre ★★★★

Yes, that’s the actual title. No, we’re not changing it. So says the Pitlochry Festival Theatre website page dedicated to this brilliantly funny and pointed revival of Iain Heggie’s bold and prescient 2001 play – its first professional restaging in 25 years.

Set in an understaffed care home somewhere in Scotland, the play introduces us to Andrine, a spirited resident in her eighties played with a pitch-perfect mix of dottiness and razor-sharp clarity by Anne Kidd.

Lisa Livingstone, Johnny McKnight in Wiping My Mother's Arse at Pitlochry Festival Theatre

We also meet her favourite care worker, Larry – camp, gay, guarding his own secrets – and her usually absent son Derek, who arrives on a visit from London with his new partner Kath; and it soon becomes clear that Larry and Derek have a history – not only sexual but financial – that Larry longs to bring into the daylight, while Derek is desperate to keep it under wraps.

In Sam Hardie’s flawlessly sharp and fast-moving production, Larry and Derek are played to perfection by Johnny McKnight and David Rankine, McKnight’s performance a magnificent study in suppressed gay anger and longing, Rankine’s Derek all respectable sweaters and repressed body language.

There’s been a light-touch updating of the play into the age of life-advice podcasts, with Larry, and Lisa Livingstone’s gloriously exasperated Kath, delighted to find they love the same one; and some might argue that men like Derek, unable to face or even name their own sexuality, are increasingly thin on the ground.

READ MORE: Fringe theatre reviews: Under the Influence | An Audience with Virginia Woolf: Writing One's Mind + more

Real life experience, though, often tells a different and sadder tale. And with the forces of social reaction once again on the march, this fine revival of Heggie’s fearless and hilarious play comes as a sharp reminder that the battle for freedom and honesty is never fully won; and that even in the hearts and minds of those with most to gain from them, the victories of recent years may be more fragile than we think.

Wiping My Mother’s Arse runs until 5 September

The Scotsman’s arts newsletter is now sent twice a week - subscribe today

Enjoying the Arts & Culture journalism on scotsman.com? Make it easier to find by selecting us as a preferred Google source

Want the latest Scottish headlines sent directly to your phone? Sign up to our new WhatsApp channel here