Theatre is a precarious business. So much can happen between commission and production, it’s best nobody gets their hopes up. That is why Eilidh Loan took her time before telling her dad Garry the good news about her play Moorcroft.
She had already put him through the ringer once. The play, which she wrote and directed, was a fictionalised account of Garry and his pals setting up a football team in 1980s Renfrewshire, little knowing that ahead of them lay a catalogue of off-pitch tragedies, from cancer to addiction. A hit at Glasgow’s Tron in February 2022, Moorcroft reflected Garry’s story back to him.
“To sit on that opening night holding hands with my dad and see him be really proud of himself for the first time in his life was just incredible,” says Loan today. “He met up with one of his pals afterwards and they had an honest conversation about their past and the emotions they felt as 50-year-old men. To see that pride he has in himself now is better than any standing ovation.” [READ MORE]