HOW did the hardest woman in Falkirk handle lockdown? Did she party like Boris Johnson? Have a suitcase full of booze like they did in Downing Street?
Audiences will be able to find out this summer when Moira Bell, the much-loved character created and played by Scots novelist and playwright Alan Bissett, returns to the Edinburgh Fringe.
His Moira Monologues have been a big success since they first hit the stage over a decade ago but it was the pandemic that gave Bissett the inspiration to bring the character back in a new story.
“I’ve often been asked if I was ever going to do a third one but until the pandemic I couldn’t really justify it from a story perspective,” said Bissett. “I felt that for me to be properly invested in it, there would need to be a real reason to bring her back.
“Reflecting on the bizarre experience the world has had for the last two years, through the particular Scottish, working-class voice of Moira Bell, seemed like the only justifiable reason. Once I’d made that decision, I really had to think about what Moira’s lockdown experience would’ve been; the extent to which it was similar to my own and the ways in which it wildly diverged.
“I thought, too, that there might be an incentive for audiences to come and see it given that Moira is the way she is – the hardest woman in Falkirk and not someone that deals with stress very well.”
Moira is based on the stories and characters Bissett encountered growing up in the Hallglen area of Falkirk, and is now a gran in her fifties, living on her own. Her work as a cleaner stops during the lockdown and she can’t see her grandchildren so, although she initially enjoys the sunny weather and more time to herself, she soon starts to kick against the traces.
“What is interesting about the pandemic is that everybody reacted to it differently,” pointed out Bissett.
“There were people who didn’t mind the restrictions but others felt them keenly. Then there were people out there who didn’t obey any of the rules. I am sure we are all aware of parties that were happening that shouldn’t have been.”
Like many real people, Moira was furious when the news broke about Dominic Cummings visit to Durham and the new play covers her reaction to that scandal as well as other events that made the headlines during the restrictions.
“Hopefully people will find something to relate to in her experiences,” said Bissett.
“And of course it is still funny.
“I couldn’t justify bringing her back and making it a tragedy; Moira wouldn’t let me. I don’t think the audience would let me either.
“What that particular character buys you is that you can get everybody laughing but then maybe undercut it a bit with something just a bit more poignant and philosophical, then go back to the laughs. She’s a good vehicle for that sort of thing.”
With theatre only now starting to get back to normal, Bissett has also had the time to write his first novel in over a decade, The Coven and the Drowners, which should be finished by the end of the year.
“It’s the biggest and most complex writing project I’ve ever undertaken but I have enjoyed pushing my borders,” said Bissett, who won the Glenfiddich Scottish Writer of the Year in 2011 and whose previous books include Boyracers, Death of a Ladies’ Man and Pack Men.
Moira In Lockdown will run at the Scottish Storytelling Centre on the High Street from August 3-23 (not 11, 15, 17, 19, 22), at 6.30pm.
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