Review: Contact by Jonny Donahoe at A Play, A Pie and A Pint at Òran Mór, Glasgow
Updated: 1 day ago
Contact is the new play from Jonny Donahoe, co-creator and original star of the Tony Award-nominated hit Every Brilliant Thing. It makes its world premiere at A Play, A Pie and A Pint at Òran Mór, in Glasgow this week before heading to Edinburgh and Paisley. Read my review here.
Contact by Jonny Donahoe ★★★★☆
Review: 8 October 2026 | Òran Mór, Glasgow
Nothing is more complex, or more fraught with opportunities for love and hurt, than family. In his new play for A Play, A Pie and a Pint, comedian and writer Jonny Donahoe transports the audience to the cramped back garden of a mother (Blythe Duff) who is visited by her adult son (Mark Barrett) for the first time in eight months.
Directed by Ben Standish, Contact introduces the pair as the mum is burning papers and the son arrives with three things to tell her. Using short, sharp sentences full of caustic wit and dark humour, the characters and their frayed relationship are quickly established. It's such an intriguing premise: Why did they fall out? What does he want to say? What is she burning!?
Both actors are excellent: Barrett as the calm, exasperated son who wants to do his duty and tell his mum some important news despite their estrangement; while Duff is magnificent as the acid-tongued elder who seems nonchalant about rekindling contact with her son.
Donahoe's comedy stems from their relentless bickering, but the tragedy is in what is left unsaid. There are hints at trauma and at a dark past that will forever bind them, but nothing is explicitly revealed. Standish deftly directs the pair to dance around their damage with never a raised tone nor an outright scrap; yet their hurt is palpable.
Contact walks a brilliant bittersweet tightrope with equal parts sharp humour and devastating drama. It's heart-in-mouth stuff as the play hits the nail on the head time and time again with insightful observations about the power of a family bond, and how, following years of resentment, we can often place the blame on the wrong people. ★★★★☆
Contact is at Glasgow's Oran Mor until 10 October, then it transfers to the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh and Paisley Town Hall. Find the full dates and details here: Contact cast announcement
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