Johnny McKnight’s Meet Me on the Knob is (very) loosely based mostly on the antics of the now largely forgotten, however infamous on the time, Glasgow gang the White Hats. Many had been Vaudeville performers, dancing by day at venues comparable to The Pavilion, The Panopticon and the notorious Glasgow Empire, and dragging up at evening within the Broomielaw, to terrorise the closeted nice and good of the Glasgow homosexual scene within the Twenties.
The knob of the title refers back to the Nelson Monument on Glasgow Inexperienced, whose landscaping afforded some much-needed cowl for the gang’s nefarious nocturnal naughtiness.
Happening over one evening within the resort the place the gang lure their prey, it is a Glasgow Peaky Blinders with tunes, and boy what tunes, the songs by Novasound (Scotland’s solely female-run manufacturing studio) are bang updated and chart-worthy. Within the arms of Darren Brownlie, long-time collaborator of McKnight’s, the songs tackle a higher that means, his highly effective however nuanced and poignant supply actually provides you goose bumps.
Brownlie is undoubtedly the shining star, glittering and glowing as he flits throughout the stage, spitting out acidic one-liners because the infamous gang chief William ‘Pretty Liz’ Haton. In assist, Dylan Wooden as Fanny is pitch-perfect and has a gorgeous voice, and well-known face Tom Urie because the goal of the gang, is much less sufferer extra arch villain.
McKnight’s writing is at occasions as gentle as a feather and as deep because the ocean – turning on a pin-edge in tone. It’s this masterful writing and Jemima Levick’s sure-footed path that makes this fly by within the blink of an eye fixed and leaves you begging for extra. The standing ovation on the finish is really deserved.
This totally glittering gem of a present is a welcome addition to the queer historical past of Glasgow. It deserves a life nicely after this one-week run at Òran Mór.
Photographs: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan
