Writer Morag Fullarton brings Bedford Falls to Byres Road in an uplifting take on the iconic Christmas tale.
‘Every time a bell rings an angel gets it’s wings.’
Just one of the many famous lines from the much loved Frank Capra movie ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’. Set on Christmas Eve 1945, it tells the story of a good man whose life of broken dreams and hard choices have lead him to contemplate suicide, until the intervention of a (wingless) guardian angel, assigned to save his life (and earn his wings), shows him otherwise.
George fears the world would have been better served had he not been born at all.
Would the world have been better without George in it? Was it a Wonderful Life?
A Play, a Pie and a Playwright
Such is the beauty of the film’s script by the wonderful Frank Capra, that there have been very few adaptations. But throwing her hat into the ring is Playwright and Director Morag Fullarton. Morag has based her new show on Capra’s beloved film and ‘It’s a Wonderful Life…Mostly’ premieres at Oran Mor this December.
Morag is no stranger to adaptations having written for both theatre and TV. For Oran Mor itself she’s written Casablanca: The Gin Joint Cut, Mack The Knife, Sunset Boulevard and Patsy Cline, to name but a few. But these ‘adaptations’ usually have a comic twist, a touch of parody, always well humoured and an homage to the original material. She has also been Co-Artisic Director of ‘A Play, a Pie and a Pint, writing many of their lunchtime plays.
A Creator of Christmas Crackers!
And now we see Morag Fullarton’s magical stage adaptation of Frank Capra’s beloved movie for a limited run of 11 nights. It’s not her first foray into Christmas theatre having many pantos under her belt, including Cinderella 2: I Married a Numpty. There’s always a good dash of Glasgow humour in her dialogue, so expect some belly laughs along with the sentimental stuff in ‘It’s a Wonderful Life…Mostly’. The cast includes A Play, a Pie and a Pint alumni Simon Donaldson, Kevin Lennon, Rosie Graham and Chris Forbes.
So will Byres Road transform into Bedford Falls; Loop and Scoop become our Gower’s ice-cream parlour, Little Italy our Martini’s Restaurant? Under the imaginative pen of Morag Fullarton, it is indeed a Wonderful Life.
Be sure to grab a ticket for what promises to be a moving, funny, and uplifting night to remember.
