This adaption from Belle and Sebastian’s album of the same name is perhaps Stuart Murdoch’s finest collection released during the band’s imperial indie phrase in the 1990s.
A paper thin plot is left wanting when faced with songs such as The Stars of Track and Field, Like Dylan in the Movies and Get Me Away From Here I’m Dying which are crowbarred into the production clumsily and without charm.
Stuart Murdoch’s sensitive Glasgow vocal is traded for a brash, loud American yell. Boss (Alan McHugh), a middle aged neurotic and Kid (Sarah Swire), a confused young woman appear to embark on an affair with Boss leaving his wife and children. The 50-something having a breakdown while turning his attentions to a much younger woman is all very reminiscent of the Woody Allen films of the 1970s.
In the chaos of a strange and doomed relationship they embark on a heist to steal Salvador Dali’s Christ of St John of the Cross and it’s as silly and awful as it sounds.
As the hour drags on you couldn’t care less about these prosaic characters and their domestic angsty behaviour.
The album is a masterpiece, the play is a disaster.
