The Guardian 21 July 2021

Who doesn’t love an underdog? When Brora Rangers played eight-times Scottish cup winners Hearts in March, they enjoyed a perfect David-and-Goliath victory. The part-time team from a town with a population of 800 beat the side with the fourth biggest budget in Scottish football. For their fans, the Highlanders’ 2-1 victory was a tremendous pay-off.

Playwright Gary McNair would understand their dogged loyalty. Produced for David Greig’s Sound Stage series of audio plays, and loosely based on Ron Ferguson’s book of the same name, Black Diamonds and the Blue Brazil is about supporters of Cowdenbeath, whose chant “We’re shite and we know we are” reveals a merry acceptance of defeat. [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).