The Steamie
★★★★★ Joyous
King’s Theatre: Mon 5 – Sat 10 Oct 2026
Review by Thom Dibdin
Forget walking woods and witches three, The Steamie has every right to be known as the Scottish Play. The tales of mince and peat baths speak loudly of, and to, its urban Scottish roots in a joyous celebration of life in the face of adversity.
The production at the King’s all week is directed by writer Tony Roper for what must be the final time. And he makes his script feels more urgent and poignant than ever in this touring production from Rerr Terr, with a cast who also knock it out the park when it comes to the comedy.
Leslie Mackie as Mrs Culfeathers, Ali Cleland as Magrit, Eden Barrie as Doreen, Louise McCarthy as Dolly. Pic: Christopher Bowen.
It’s hard to think that The Steamie was first staged in 1987 by Wildcat: if Roper was to write it now, the NTS would surely be picking it up with glee.
Set in a communal Glasgow washhouse or steamie on a Hogmanay evening in the mid 1950s, (a time before rock’n’roll hit Scotland according to David Anderson who wrote the songs for this play with music), it follows four women doing the last wash of the year.
The four – Mrs Culfeathers, Dolly, Magrit and Doreen – chat, banter with Andy the janitor, talk of their hopes in the modern world, look back at what is being lost, gossip and laugh.
their stories an equal joy
All the while going through the toil of their hand-washing with its washboard, carbolic soap, steamer, trip to the wringers and the treading of blankets.
The cleverness of Roper’s script is that whether you are seeing it for the first or for the ninth time, he makes these character familiar – and their stories an equal joy.
Ali Cleland as Magrit, Louise McCarthy as Dolly and Eden Barrie as Doreen. Pic: Christopher Bowen.
Beside its professional tours, The Steamie has been a hit for local amateur companies over the years. For many, this is watching an old friend. And it must be said, it is an old friend who is finding that life begins at 40…
Success is not automatic, though. Such familiarity demands a cast who are not only able to breath new life into the words, but also create human and relatable characters to say them. It speaks volumes for the skill of the cast and Roper’s direction that they have achieved both. While giving an emotional depth to Anderson’s music.
Louise McCarthy is imperious as the big-hearted Dolly. Always ready to help Lesley Mackie’s ancient Mrs Culfeathers, McCarthy’s Dolly is exactly on the right level of naivety and glaikit innocence.
faults and foibles
Dolly’s imagined phone conversation with Eden Barrie’s young Doreen remains a wonderful piece of physical and verbal comedy. While the recollection of her peat bath – and growing realisation that she might, just, have been conned, makes the ensuing ablutions utterly inevitable – and logical to boot.
If Ali Cleland’s severe Magrit doesn’t have any truck with Dolly’s flights of fancy, Cleland ensures that underneath this character embittered by an alcoholic husband, there is a human being with all the necessary faults and foibles.
Ali Cleland as Magrit. Pic: Christopher Bowen.
Not that you would want to get on the wrong side of her… Her tongue lashing gossip about the poverty-striken local family, whose daughter is seen waiting on a street corner is pure vitriol – and, despite a moderation of language, is the most discomfiting element of the whole production.
There are those who might want to cut or ignore or bowdlerise the scene, but that would be to lose the grit in the play, leaving little to offset its elements of rose-tinted nostalgia.
As the youngest of the quartet, Doreen has the strongest eye on the future. Eden Barrie gives a nice glint to those dreams of moving to Drumchapel delivering them without an ounce of irony, but in such a way that irony of the lines, seen in hindsight, still shines through.
dragging the routine out to its limits
Not that there is too much rose-tinted about the sheer existence of the character of Mrs Culfeathers: an old body who is still taking in washing to keep her household afloat. Once again, the casting choice is spot on. Lesley Mackie balances between vulnerability and stoicism, while delivering the comedy with authenticity.
Mackie goes right out to the edge when it comes to Mrs Culfeathers’ tale of Galloway’s mince and her husband’s response, dragging the routine out to its limits, without ever actually appearing to milk it.
Paul J Corrigan as Andy, Ali Cleland as Magrit, Eden Barrie as Doreen, Louise McCarthy as Dolly. Pic: Christopher Bowen.
Despite the singular routines, this is very much an ensemble piece, which works here all the better for the rapport between the four and their put-downs of Paul J Corrigan as Andy, the washhouse janitor. Andy attempts to give as good as he gets, but Corrigan finesses the character with subtlety and an excellent sense of drunk acting.
The casting also plays to David Anderson’s songs, with Cleland, McCarthy and Barrie on particularly fine form, with Ross Brown on piano accompaniment. Paul Smith’s sound design should also be mentioned as there not a word lost in the whole show, while Kenny Miller’s set ensures that the sense of place is never lost, even as Emma Jones’s intelligent lighting takes it off into the dreamworlds conjured by Anderson.
yardstick
There have been many, many productions of The Steamie, and Tony Roper has at the helm for more than a few of the professional tours. But this, his last (he says) production, is probably as good as it gets. A yardstick by which all other productions of The Steamie should be judged.
Running time: Two hours and 30 minutes (including one interval).
King’s Theatre, 2 Leven Street EH3 9LQ..
Monday 5 – Saturday 10 October 2026.
Evenings: 7.30pm; Mats: Wed, Sat: 2.30pm..
Tickets and details: Book here.
Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Port-Na-Craig, Pitlochry, PH16 5DR.
Tuesday 20 – Saturday 24 October 2026.
Evenings: 7.30pm, Wed, Thur, Sat mat: 2pm.
Tickets and details: Book here.
Alhambra Theatre, 33-35 Canmore Street, Dunfermline KY12 7NX.
Thursday 29 – Saturday 31 October 2026.
Evenings: 7.30pm, Thurs, Sat mat: 2.30pm.
Tickets and details: Book here.
Glasgow King’s, 297 Bath St, Glasgow G2 4JN.
Monday 2 – Saturday 14 November 2026.
Mon-Sat: 7.30pm, Thur, Sat mat: 2.30pm.
Tickets and details: Book here.
ENDS
