Sometimes you get so used to defeat that the possibility of victory is scary. That is the case for Bobby, a supporter of St Johnstone FC, in Oh When the Saints, a new play at Perth Theatre. Written by Martin McCormick, it is the story of a club not overly familiar with footballing triumph.
So much is that the case that when, on 17 May 2014, the team goes head to head with Dundee United, the long-term fan can’t bring himself to go. As his team enjoys a two-nil win at Celtic Park, securing its first ever Scottish Cup, Bobby is elsewhere.
“He has this existential crisis on the day,” says McCormick, who based the incident on a true story. “He wakes up and he can’t go to the game. Failure is so ingrained in him that he opts out. It’s a working-class sense of being confined and trapped. This is a day when he will potentially experience some emotional freedom, but he can’t go through with it.” [READ MORE]