The Moira Trilogy
For the first time ever, Bissett is performing all three of his successful 'Moira shows' as a trilogy all in one evening. Together they not only form a hilarious, rip-roaring three-hour 'one woman show' but also provide a social history of the Scottish working-class from 2009-2022; all to the backdrop of the finanicial crash, the independence referendum, Brexit, Trump, and Covid-19 as experienced by Falkirk's Hardest Woman.
Reviews:
⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4 stars "This is brilliant stuff, an exhilaratingly fresh take on the whole business of class and culture in Scotland. It's also so funny that some in the audience were literally shouting with laughter" - Joyce McMillan, The Scotsman
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5 stars "A near-perfect series of new monologues, both howlingly funny and unnervingly sherp and poetic" - Joyce McMillan, The Scotsman
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5 stars "Moira's back-to-the-wall willingness to take on all-comers is the constant powerhouse of Alan Bissett's humour" - Broadway Baby
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5 stars "Heart-stoppingly funny, and heart-warming, Alan Bissett has created nothing less than an hour of storytelling perfection" - The Quintessential Review.
The Moira Monologues:
Meet Moira Bell: a cleaner, single mother, and the hardest woman in Falkirk. Whether defending her wee dog Pepe from the local rottweiler; attempting to seduce a teacher; or belting out Diana Ross for the Skotia karaoke night - Moira is hilarious, hypnotic, frightening and heart-warming company.
Based on the stories and characters Alan encountered growing up in the Hallglen area of Falkirk, where The Moira Monologues first premiered. Moira, her long suffering pal Babs, her neighbour (Bawface), her laddies (they're gid laddies, but they canny take their hash), and her wee dug Pepe have left audiences all over the country weak with laughter. The Moira Monologues was first performed at the Mitchell Library Theatre as part of the Aye Write! Festival in March 2009 before transferring to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
More Moira Monologues:
She's back! Straight-talking single mum, Moira Bell, returns in a new instalment of Alan Bissett's much-loved one-woman show. Moira's a gran now, but still telling hilarious home-truths about dating, her estranged sister, cleaning posh folk's hooses, the return of her ex Billy, and Brexit.
Moira In Lockdown:
In this third and final instalment of what is now The Moira Trilogy, Falkirk's hardest woman, Moira Bell, faces her toughest challenge yet: surviving a pandemic with only vodka, fags, and her BFF Babs on Zoom. Take that, Bear Grylls!
Journey through the highs and lows of lockdown with writer-performer Alan Bissett returning as Moira, as she lusts after Joe Wickes, rages at Cummings, and grows her own weed (might as well, seeing as the f**kin world's ending, eh Babs?). She's "the most charismatic character to appear on a Scottish stage in a decade" (The Scotsman) but this time she canny even leave the hoose!
The Moira Trilogy FOUR STAR Guardian review –
Alan Bissett’s cleaner-cum-cannabis-farmer tells it like it is, read the full article here
”What strikes you about Bissett’s single-sitting staging of the three instalments of his Moira Monologues is how much they reflect the times. The laughs come as Moira tells her best friend Babs about her run-in with a rottweiler in The Moira Monologues (2009), about necking a bottle of vodka on the train to Inverness in More Moira Monologues (2017) and about fighting over the loo roll in Moira in Lockdown (2022). But as she reaches her 50th birthday, the exuberant cleaner-cum-cannabis-farmer is an accidental mouthpiece for a nation in flux.”