OXFORD Stage Company has an excellent reputation for rediscovering neglected plays. This week it brings Men Should Weep ? a powerful modern classic by Ena Lamont Stewart which has become an icon of Scottish theatre ? to Exeter?s Northcott Theatre. In the East End of Glasgow in the 1930s, mother of seven Maggie Morrison battles to hold her family together in their damp, squalid tenement. Her unemployed husband spends his days in the local library, looking for work and latching on to political causes. Together they cope with tuberculosis, errant children, prying neighbours and daily hardship. When their teenage daughter leaves home in search of a better life, the family will never be the same again. Heart breaking, yet rich in humour, Men Should Weep is a tough, raw and intimate portrait of a family?s struggle for survival during The Depression. Deeply moving and wickedly funny, it is a defiant and compassionate celebration of the human spirit?s triumph over poverty. An outstanding cast includes Pauline Turner as Maggie. Men Should Weep is one of the greatest plays produced by the Scottish Popular Theatre movement of the 1920s-1940s and this is the first national production in over twenty years. Ena Lamont Stewart is Scotland?s first major female playwright, who rebelled against the conventional drama of the time to produce a new kind of working-class drama. The production runs today (Thursday), tomorrow and Saturday with matinees today and Saturday. Box office 01392 493493 or online at http://www.northcott-theatre.co.uk">www.northcott-theatre.co.uk
