Review: Inexperience – Pitlochry Festival Theatre

Inexperience, played in Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s Studio, is funny, touching, thought-provoking and very clever. It’s about human connection—or the lack of it—and how lives which have once touched one another can veer off in such different directions. Written by Douglas Maxwell and directed by Sally Reid, Inexperience begins with two students celebrating the girl’s 21st birthday, where they strike a fateful, “no-touch” pact to preserve their initial romantic spark forever.

Exceptional Cast Dynamics and Standout Performances

Alexander Tait, who plays all of the young male roles, including the young Robin, absolutely steals the show. His Arthur—the modern-day, wide-eyed court apprentice working under older Robin—is phenomenal and is laugh out loud. Sophie Fortune plays the young female characters, including the young Iris, and it’s sometimes hard to believe it’s the same person playing each of the roles, so chameleon-like is she. Sandy Grierson plays the older Robin and Adura Onashile the older Iris who, despite their connection at the 21st birthday party—or perhaps because of it—have turned out, decades later, to be complete opposites in every way when a modern-day court case unexpectedly brings them face-to-face again.

Inexperience, played in Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s Studio, is funny, touching, thought-provoking and very clever. It’s about human connection—or the lack of it—and how lives which have once touched one another can veer off in such different directions.

Grierson’s Robin is ‘clean’ and careful, never breaking the rules and always choosing the same sandwich for lunch. Iris is a rebel always looking for a cause, with seemingly little stickability and little accountability to her dying ex-husband or her stepson and his young child. She’s so busy fighting other people’s battles she appears to have lost sight of those she perhaps should be closest to.

A Tale of Rules, Rebellion, and Human Connection

But Iris is really likeable and we all know that shambolic life and soul person who we love to bits but drives us mad. Robin is so buttoned up and hidebound by the rules—those of the Sheriff Court in which he works and his own self-imposed ones—that he can’t see how self-limiting he’s become. His ‘rules’ don’t seem to make much sense to young Arthur, but he’s keen to learn all the same, so he repeats the rules parrot-fashion, often forgetting the one about not swearing.

Much of the humour in the play—and there’s plenty of it—comes from the interplay between the male characters, while the female characters are much more belligerent and feisty. There is frustration on both parts with the women, always chasing rainbows and acting on impulse.

**Adura Onashile and Sandy Grierson in Inexperience. Photograph by Tommy Ga-Ken Wan**

The likeableness of the characters is in part to do with the script—these are not bad people—but also because we saw Robin and Iris when they were young and we know the pact they made. Robin has taken it to extremes, holding onto the memory with unwavering dedication. Iris has forgotten about it—and Robin—completely. They are both characters we recognise and know in some guise or another.

I was a little less convinced by Toni, Iris’s latest activist cause, but she plays an important role in the way the story unfolds, as does Shauna, the ambitious young lawyer. These two characters could have been played by two entirely different actors, not by Sophie Fortune, so adept was she at changing her character.

An Entertaining and Thought-Provoking Script

The script is clever, the acting excellent and the audience were absorbed: it almost felt a shame to have to have an interval. The title is clever too and encompasses all sorts of versions of inexperience, so the play might also leave you thinking afterwards.

The script is clever, the acting excellent and the audience were absorbed: it almost felt a shame to have to have an interval.

I didn’t find all of the storyline convincing, but actually that didn’t matter. It goes along at pace and the characters are all recognisable. It’s funny and touching and pretty ‘feel good’. I defy you not to like the characters, with all of their flaws. It’s what good old-fashioned theatre is all about—entertaining, thought-provoking (even if just a little bit) and exceptionally well done.

Final Verdict: A Heart-Warming Must-Watch

Maybe this new drama won’t set the world on fire, but sometimes what we want and need is a bit of heart-warming joy, not yet more angst and misery, and you’ll certainly get plenty of good ‘feels’ with Inexperience.

It’s on until 4th July, so you’ve still got time to catch it. I’d recommend it.

Featured Image: Sophie Fortune and Alexander Tait in Inexperience at Pitlochry Festival theatre. Photograph by Tommy Ga-Ken Wan