The Scotsman 23 February 2024

You are driving down the street, joining in with a song on the radio at the top of your voice. We have all done it. Jo Mango was the same. But this time there was a twist for the Glasgow singer-songwriter.

“I was singing away to some stupid pop hit on Radio 1,” she says. “Then in the other direction, this woman came in her car singing along to the same song. We both clocked each other singing. There was this weird moment: she was a complete stranger, but we were connected by the act of singing the same thing.”

That moment of connection is what she loves about music. Whatever our differences, we find common purpose when we share a song. That is why, when she came to creating a show about people leaving prison, Mango decided the form would have to be gig theatre. Only music could reconcile prisoners, victims, prosecutors and friends in a single performance. [READ MORE]

By Mark Fisher

MARK FISHER is a freelance theatre critic and feature writer based in Edinburgh and has written about theatre in Scotland since the late-1980s. He is a theatre critic for The Guardian, a former editor of The List magazine and a frequent contributor to the Scotsman and other publications. He is the co-editor of the play anthology Made in Scotland (1995), and the author of The Edinburgh Fringe Survival Guide (2012) and How to Write About Theatre (2015) – all Bloomsbury Methuen Drama. He is also the editor of The XTC Bumper Book of Fun for Boys and Girls and What Do You Call That Noise? An XTC Discovery Book (both Mark Fisher Ltd).