WRITER and performer Alan Bissett is set to tour Scotland as his alter ego Moira Bell, “the hardest woman in Falkirk”, following rave reviews.
(More) Moira Monologues, the sequel to Bissett’s first outing as the straight-talking single mum, premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August, where it scooped a prestigious Fringe First Award.
The National’s critic Nadine McBay awarded it five stars, describing it as “such a riot my ears popped a couple of times from the row behind me shouting with laughter.”
Bissett will tour both plays – the original and the sequel – as a double bill in 2018, including on the main stage of the Citizens’ Theatre in Glasgow as part of the Glasgow Comedy Festival, and for his home crowd at Falkirk Town Hall in March.
The show, directed by Bissett’s long-time collaborator Sacha Kyle, will also visit Edge Hill University, near Liverpool, on March 6, with additional tour dates set to be announced early next year.
Bissett served as “cultural ambassador” for National Collective, the arts organisation established to make the case for independence, and his pro-indy play The Pure, The Dead and The Brilliant ran at the Fringe a month before the 2014 referendum. The satirical show, incorporating elements of Scottish folklore, was entirely crowdfunded, starred Elaine C Smith and played to packed houses.
His previous plays include Turbo Folk, which was shortlisted for Best New Play at the Critics Awards for Theatre in Scotland.
(More) Moira Monologues is described as “a post-indyref, post-Brexit Moira, switched on to politics and still blowing away preconceptions about class.”
Details of the tour can be found at bit.ly/AlanBissett
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