The Steamie returns to Glasgow tonight as Tony Roper brings his much-loved Scottish comedy home for the final dates of a nationwide tour.
Almost 40 years after it was first staged, the play begins its run at the King’s Theatre, Glasgow, tonight (Tuesday 3 November), with performances continuing until 14 November.
The production marks the final time the play’s 85-year-old writer will direct The Steamie.
Set inside a Glasgow washhouse on Hogmanay in the 1950s, the comedy follows Magrit, Dolly, Doreen and Mrs Culfeathers as they tackle the final wash of the year.
Between the washing, wringing and steaming, the women share gossip, stories, frustrations and hopes for the future, while washhouse handyman Andy finds himself caught up in the action.
Louise McCarthy plays Dolly, with Ali Cleland as Magrit, Eden Barrie as Doreen, Olivier Award-winner Lesley Mackie as Mrs Culfeathers and Paul J Corrigan as Andy.
The production has been touring Scotland since August and arrives in Glasgow for its final run, with Roper returning to direct the play for what he says will be the last time.
The Steamie was first produced by Wildcat Stage Productions in 1987 and went on to become one of the most recognisable Scottish plays of the modern era.
Its television adaptation, first broadcast on Hogmanay 1988, helped introduce Magrit, Dolly, Doreen and Mrs Culfeathers to an even wider audience.
Speaking to Scottish News, Roper said he originally feared the television adaptation could damage the future of the stage show by making audiences less likely to pay to see something they could watch at home.
Instead, the opposite happened.
He said: “I thought people might become sick and tired of it. Exactly the opposite happened.
“It taught me something about the difference between television and theatre.
“Over the years I’ve met people who have watched the television version countless times and then seen it on stage, and they’ll tell me there is no comparison.
“I agree with them. Theatre is a different thing.
“You are in the room with these characters. You are sharing it with an audience. When something works and a whole theatre responds to it together, you cannot reproduce that by watching a recording at home.”
Roper believes the characters, rather than nostalgia for a vanished Glasgow, have allowed The Steamie to remain relevant to successive generations.
The playwright deliberately never identified which Glasgow washhouse inspired the setting, allowing audiences to imagine it as part of their own neighbourhood.
He said: “I think that is one of the reasons it has lasted. People recognise somebody from their own lives.
“They might not recognise every word the characters are saying because the language belongs to another era, but they recognise what they are talking about.
“They recognise the relationships. They recognise the misunderstandings.
“They recognise the daft situations people get themselves into.”
The play retains the language of its 1950s setting despite some words and expressions having disappeared from everyday use.
He added: “I don’t think The Steamie survives because audiences are nostalgically reconnecting with some vanished version of Glasgow.
“I think it survives because the people aren’t really that different. They are the same people in different circumstances.
“The clothes change. The language changes. The city changes. The way people live changes.
“The emotions don’t change very much.”
The Steamie is at the King’s Theatre, Glasgow, until Saturday 14 November. Evening performances are at 7.30pm, with matinees on Thursdays and Saturdays.