Be Near Me

Synopsis

David Anderton, an Oxford-educated Catholic priest is assigned to a parish in a dispirited Scottish town on the Ayrshire coast. Lonely and adrift he befriends two unstable teenagers from the local school and is drawn into their exotic world. As events spin out of control he is forced to face his greatest trial yet.

Our Review:

27 January 2009

From supping fine wine and cooking gourmet fish dishes to appreciating the finer points of Chopin nocturnes - one thing you can’t accuse Father David Anderton of in Ian McDiarmid’s stage version of Andrew O'Hagan's Booker Prize-nominated novel is leading a life of Roman Catholic piety.

Assigned to a declining parish in an Ayrshire coastal town where working class bigotry, tartan tribalism and economic depression are embedded in the communal gene pool, Father David may be spiritually directionless, but at least he arrives complete with his own antique chandelier, a posh English accent and a natural ability to wind people up, all of which sets him completely out of sync with the the hard-boiled Scots he’s supposed to serve. Combine this unholy lifestyle with a sex scandal involving drugs, booze and a tender drunken kiss with a cocky special needs schoolboy he’s grown rather too fond of, and the 60 year-old finds himself hurtling headlong into a small-town...

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Latest User Review

David Baxter - 5 March 2009:

Attending the theatre with a splitting headache is not recommended, which may contribute to my mixed feelings about Ian McDiarmid's patchy adaptation of Andrew O'Hagan's probably superior novel. Be Near Me is set amongst the sectarian underclass of any Ayrshire town but the IRA/Orange tensions soon become irrelevant in the story of an English priest who develops strong feelings for a 15 year old boy (albeit a very old teenager). Unforunately too little is made of Father David's past love for another younger man in a previous parish which would have put his behaviour into context. McDiarmid is an ascetic actor so it is very odd to watch him grinning and dancing to teh Beach Boys; he also looks considerably older than the actress cast as his mother. There si sgood support from an ensemble who mostly remain on stage throughout, particularly Blythe Duff who has escaped Taggart to play an unusually cultured housekeeper. Despite my struggles Be Near Me held my attention throughout but I don't think it had anything particularly new to say....

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