DOLORES O’Riordan of The Cranberries gave 17-year-old Cora Bissett a message on a gig flyer. It was 1992 and Bissett’s group Darlingheart were supporting the Irish band on tour. Next to her number, O’Riordan, who died in January, scrawled a few words of advice: “don’t take any shit”.
More than 25 years later, Bissett, one of the country’s foremost writer-directors, returns as a stage performer in this autobiographical tale hingeing on her time with the band who scored one of the biggest record deals in Scottish music history.
Hair scraped back atop a Pixies T-shirt, mic in hand, Bissett recreates Darlingheart in this play-come-gig with producer/engineer Susan Bear and actor-musicians Simon Donaldson and Grant O’Rourke (both Outlander).
A weave of monologue, dialogue and songs from the era charts Darlingheart’s lightning rise from its members’ Fife bedrooms to a £90,000 record deal, trashing hotels and playing with a bunch of posh English boys (Radiohead) and Blur.
But when a particularly fearsome NME writer slated their album, the result was devastating.
It’s a roller-coaster, certainly, and one whose highs and lows will be felt by those who came of age at the time. Affecting are the insights into Bissett’s personal life, notably the illness and death of her father and her struggles to have a family.
Finding a box of memorabilia in her late dad’s attic, Bissett wondered what lessons she could impart to her infant daughter. They are recounted in a touching closing number which concludes by saying girls are made of “sugar and spice, and other things, not all nice”. O’Riordan would approve.
Until Aug 26 (not 13, 20), Traverse Theatre, various times (85mins), £21.50, £16.50 and £15 concs. Tel: 0131 228 1404. Tickets: bit.ly/WhatGirls18 @traversetheatre @RAWMaterialArts #WhatGirlsAreMadeOf www.corabissett.co.uk
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