Review: A History of Paper

A History of Paper (Pitlochry Theatre 9th August–12th September and Dundee Rep Theatre from 16th–19th September) is a co-production between Pitlochry Festival Theatre and Dundee Rep Theatre. Written by Oliver Emanuel, it started as a radio play back in 2017 and then was adapted by Emanuel and composer Gareth Williams into a stage musical, first performed at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, in 2024.

It runs for 70 minutes with no interval and stars Alan Cumming and Shirley Henderson as He and She, accompanied by pianist and Musical Director Gavin Whitworth. There appears to be a growing trend for one-act plays in theatres nowadays, and I liken them to short stories or novellas in the world of books. They still need to tell a whole story, with plenty of content, but the writer needs to be clever enough to ensure that it’s not that they just don’t have enough ideas for a full-length show. The art of the short story, or one-act play, is to ensure it’s as rich as its longer-length cousin and the story is one worth telling.

So A History of Paper tells the story of He and She, neighbours who meet when He’s playing his music too loud after a romantic break-up and She puts a note through his door to complain. The story is about love and loss and is, inevitably, bittersweet. The themes are told through, or allied to, the pieces of paper we use and often keep, because they seem to hold our memories.

Cumming and Henderson have great chemistry together on set, both with puck-like youthfulness and agility as they flit around the stage, belying the fact that they’re actually both sixty-plus. They are endearing as their story unfolds and absolutely believable as a couple falling in love. She is feisty, He more cautious, and there is something touching about that. Congratulations to them for that and to Andrew Panton for his skilful directing.

“There appears to be a growing trend for one-act plays in theatres nowadays, and I liken them to short stories or novellas in the world of books.”

Staging, Score, and Chemistry in A History of Paper

Ana Inés Jabares-Pita’s stage set is extremely clever and adapts, as if by magic, with hardly an actual change, to the scenes playing out on it. It’s monochrome and looks like it could be a coastline initially — maybe of the east coast of Scotland where He comes from — and morphs into other landscapes as the play progresses. Its different layers allow Cumming and Henderson to run and jump about on it, and it is cleverly used. There’s a hint of papier-mâché about it, and I loved it.

**Alan-Cumming-Gavin-Whitworth-and-Shirley-Henderson-in-A-History-of-Paper-image-by-Tommy-Ga-Ken-Wan**

But it’s a musical, so we need to talk about the music. I liked the piano accompaniment and didn’t mind it being on stage. Both piano and pianist were dressed in white, so they blended in, rather than standing out, even though most of the set was a darker grey. Cumming and Henderson have decent voices and harmonised pretty well together, but I didn’t find the songs particularly memorable or helpful in moving the story along. Given the brevity of the play, the songs took up quite a bit of the seventy-minute running time. The songs are sweet and a bit wistful — ‘What Use Is Paper?’ and ‘Turn Back The Page’ are fitting subjects. OK, I know this is a musical, so it HAS to have songs, and I know its fans — and there are rightly many — will shoot me down in flames, but I found myself wondering what the original radio play was like, with no music, and He and She played by Mark Bonnar and Lucy Gaskell. It’s not currently available online, so for this piece, I’ll never know. So, I’ll accept this is a musical adaptation and concede that the songs fit the story and add some very tender moments.

“Cumming and Henderson have great chemistry together on set, both with puck-like youthfulness and agility as they flit around the stage, belying the fact that they’re actually both sixty-plus.“

The friend who came with me to Pitlochry had heard me wax lyrical about the version of Sunshine On Leith that I’d seen recently and loved, and she wondered why that one had felt so right with all the music, and yet I was less convinced by the need for songs in A History of Paper. Good question. I suppose the difference is that the former was written as a ‘jukebox’ musical and the latter as a radio drama.

That pondering aside, Pitlochry’s A History of Paper is tender and uplifting and touching and sad, all rolled into one, with two marvellous actors with obvious chemistry, and I would absolutely recommend it.

Featured Image: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan