Bar Room Drama Draws on Real Life Experience

Keith Fleming as Henry Chinaski in 'Barflies'.

TORN between the idea of a cultural evening at the theatre or a night in the pub?

Then Scottish theatre company Grid Iron might have the solution — a play not only set, but performed in a pub.

It is the natural environment for "Barflies", a play adapted from the stories and poems of cult US writer Charles Bukowski.

Bukowski, whose books and stories have inspired the films "Barfly" with Mickey Rourke and "Factotum" with Matt Dillon, was described by Time magazine as the "laureate of American lowlife", with his writing — especially the short stories and novels featuring his alter-ego Henry Chinaski — closely drawn from his own life with his relationship problems, frustrations as a writer and his alcoholism.

"It’s a show that works very well in a pub setting," producer Judith Doherty acknowledged.

So well that it sold out on its 2009 Edinburgh Fringe run and for the show’s first tour Grid Iron has been scouting out suitable pub venues across Scotland — as well as a longer trip to Cardiff.

However, Doherty insists her location search was not as much fun as it potentially sounds.

"I was visiting four or five pubs a day. People were telling me ‘that sounds great’, but I was visiting most of them in the morning," she said.

"It was like the worst pub crawl in the world — like an AA pub crawl!"

However, she has succeeded in finding suitable venues for the show, including Hootananny’s Ceilidh Bar on Inverness’s Church Street, joining similar atmospheric hostelries such as the Edinburgh company’s own local, the Barony, or Betty Nicols across the Forth in Kirkcaldy, and even when the show goes into theatres it will be performed in the venues’ own bars, such as the Tron’s Victorian Bar in Glasgow, rather than on the stage.

"Part of the challenge for us as a company is to make the show as flexible as possible," Doherty said.

"Audiences like that. They like being part of something different."

Grid Iron, whose previous site specific shows included "Decky Does a Bronco" performed at outside swings on Eden Court’s lawns, know the difference taking a play out of the theatre and into a new setting can make.

"It should feel more immediate and visceral," she said.

"With this play it should feel more like having a night in the pub and watching these people interacting rather than watching a play.

"Site specific work really is a very different experience for audiences, which is something they don’t always get to do in our site specific shows."

The one difference from being in a pub is that while the audience will be able to buy drinks before and after the show, during the performance itself the bar will be out of bounds to avoid audience members themselves becoming a part of the action.

Putting a play on outwith the usual theatre environment can also attract an audience not made up of regular theatre goers.

"It’s really lovely when you hear someone saying that they don’t normally go to the theatre, but the show was great so they might give it a go," Doherty said.

Looking steadily on the pains and glories of drunkenness, the play takes a step away from Bukowski’s Los Angeles setting by being performed in the actors’ own Scottish vernacular rather than stage American.

"We were in communication with Bukowski’s widow back in 2009 when we started the project and I think it would be very interesting if we took a Scottish Henry Chinaski over to LA to see what they thought of it," Doherty suggested.

The award-winning Keith Fleming, who starred in the National Theatre of Scotland’s "Black Watch" and "Peer Gynt", takes on the role of Chinaski, but co-star Charlene Boyd also has a busy time representing the women in his life.

Over the course of the show she plays five characters, at one stage playing two at the same time.

Completing the cast is David Paul Jones, who also composed the music, and the play is adapted and directed by Ben Harrison.

"Bukowski’s still a controversial writer," Doherty said.

"I read through an awful lot of his writing to get to the three stories and two poems we use in the play. He can be seen as misogynistic and quite violent, but then you come through that to the most beautiful poetry."

This is what the play sets out to explore, the contradictions in the man, his writing — and his drinking.

"It looks at both sides," Doherty said.

"It’s both a celebration and warning about drinking."

• "Barflies" is at Hootananny’s, Church Street, Inverness, at 8.30pm on Sunday 12th and Monday 13th February. Tickets are available from Eden Court box office, priced £12 or £10 concession.