FringeReview Scotland 2026
Yer Da Works at Tesco
Platform’s Monday Night Drama
Genre: New Writing, Youth Theatre
Venue: Platform Theatre Easterhouse, Glasgow
Festival: FringeReview Scotland
Low Down
Teenagers try to inform teenagers of just exactly what capitalism is, one word at a time, literally. Beginning with a 1950’s video on a projected screen of a group of American teenagers attempting to explain capitalism in a positive light we move onto a bunch of Scottish teenagers on stage telling how capitalism really translates into real people’s lives. The projection shows the one word and then the teenagers give a witty and pithy explanation before we get audience interaction, the battle of the supermarkets and a finale. The title of the piece a derogatory phrase used in teenage culture binds everything together and why it is that capitalism is an inequality that we should anarchically resist.
Review
Prior to rushing up to Inverness for the National Festival of Youth Theatre, Platform’s Monday Night Drama group has a home fixture performing their 40 minutes piece prior to taking a national stage.
There is a genuineness about the performances which don’t endear you to it but strike you. It’s not cute because it is not supposed to be but has a real edge to it due to the genuine enthusiasm onstage. The script includes some really funny lines in where the audience, homegrown and highly supportive, heartily guffawed. The script has an underlying current which is serious attempting to explain inequality. At a time in politics where the left and right seem to be fighting over the fact there is little left and few seem to be right about anything is zeitgeisty. Combined with teenagers at the cusp of entering the world of work and we have a fascinating production.
It’s a rough and ready performance though the actors share a collective comfort about being on their own stage. Here it is their stage and their rules and conventions are being broken. Ike many groups with a range of community actors involved, there’s awkwardness, a lack of experience perhaps for some but overall, there was a real collective comfort in seeing an ensemble group of people who simply wanted each other to do well.
Technically there is a lot of good thinking behind costume, set, lighting and the soundscape (although at times balance was a little off) – all of which along with the projections were slick enough. I particularly enjoyed seeing the Tesco club Card making an appearance. Interaction with the audience was also a particular positive and the direction overall seemed to draw on the strengths of all of the actors.
The central use of the microphone needs a bit of work, perhaps more time working with audio equipment would be a help but that also added to the genuine nature of it all.
This felt as though the audience were engaging with the subject matter with our creatives able to communicate that across the footlights.
The issue that many performances in youth theatre or with young people is being thrust at something like a Shakespeare they don’t understand, spouting lines abut which they have little idea. Here were actors engaged in delivering something that was important. It wasn’t its charm but was its vitality.
The Monday night group should really feel a sense of pride not in a performance but in a production that shows off not their latent talents but their ability to comprehend, understand and intellectualise something that has bamboozled politicians over the last four or five years in ways that confuse most of us. It would appear that we have a group of young people ready to stretch forward and point the way ahead.
