Dear Billy ★★★★

Billed as “a love letter to the Big Yin from the people of Scotland” as McNair makes plain from the outset the show is no tribute act, in the conventional sense, as he quips “We don’t want a repeat of Dundee!”.  Instead, the audience is treated an array of stories, collected from the length and breadth of Scotland of people’s opinions of and encounters with Connolly which are dramatically and humorously interpreted on stage.  Covering the Big Yin’s life trajectory, from his gritty childhood and demanding early working life in the Clydeside shipyards, through to his success in folk clubs and his breakthrough to media mega-stardom, each vignette builds an honest mosaic of what he means to the national psyche.

In Dear Billy, McNair – ably accompanied by the musical talents of Simon Liddell and Jill O’Sullivan – delivers a show that is full of warmth, laughter and sometimes the odd caustic moment for balance.  He seamlessly bounces between characters, deftly illuminating them as they recount their own stories of Connolly.  And on occasion these tales are filled with poignancy, such as the time someone was rescued from the depths of depression by the Big Yin’s humour, or the encounter between an elderly Connolly and a man who, like him, had also been living with Parkinson’s Disease.  McNair also humorously relates his own unplanned and fan-boy-esque meeting with the play’s subject.  Originally touring as a full production from The National Theatre of Scotland, if there is one criticism to be made of Dear Billy, it is that it could have been shortened to run for an hour to fully deliver the dramatic-momentum expected from Fringe productions.  However, there is no doubt that audiences will leave the show feeling, even more love for Scotland’s national treasure.