theatreSCOTLAND

4 September 2011 The Guardian

Para Handy

By Neil Munro, adapted by John Bett. An Open Book/Eden Court Theatre review.

IMAGINE Last of the Summer Wine set on a Clyde puffer and you'll be close to the mild-mannered territory of Neil Munro's Para Handy stories. Written initially as a newspaper column in 1905, they are the whimsical tales of the eponymous Para Handy (a Gaelicisation of Peter Macfarlane), the skipper of the Vital Spark, on his voyages from the Inner Hebrides to Glasgow, shipping coal, herring and, on a humiliating day, sawdust.

27 September 2011 Northings

Para Handy

By Neil Munro, adapted by John Bett. An Open Book/Eden Court Theatre review.

IS IT nostalgia? The romance of the Highlands? A longing for simpler times? Whatever it is, thereÕs no denying the enduring appeal of Neil MunroÕs tales about Para Handy, the captain of the Vital Spark, squabbling with his mild-mannered crew as they navigate between Gourock and Skye, Loch Fyne and Campbeltown, in a pre-war world that seems a whole lot more innocent.

theatreSCOTLAND © Mark Fisher 2011