The Long Drop ★★★

A moody Glaswegian police precinct greets the audience as they enter the auditorium. The oppressive shades of grey, the harsh lighting and the bleak atmosphere oddly draw the eye as two policemen enter the scene – we are in for a grim evening of horror.

The man-made horror depicted in The Long Drop is the sequence of events that lead up to the execution of Scotland’s worst serial killer, Peter Manuel. Dubbed “The Beast of Birkenshaw”, Manuel is a man whose criminal record is the stuff of a true-crime podcast. Rather than opting for this tried-and-tested format, Dominic Hill’s production transforms Manuel’s story into an expansive saga.

The play, adapted from Denise Mina’s The Long Drop, itself a true-crime novel, centres around an evening with Manuel. He has surely committed an act of despicable murder – the slaying of a family. With a gun passed through a criminal network, he has taken the lives of Marion and Vivienne Watt, mother and daughter, and Margaret Brown, Marion’s sister.

Accompanying Manuel through a tour of sleazy Glasgow pubs is the Watt’s patriarch, William. William Watt suspects Manuel of the crime but is also a suspect in the case. The two journey through the criminal underworld of the city, running into trouble with gangsters, as both Watt and Manuel realise the similarities and differences in each other.

Playwright Linda McLean has crafted a genuinely intriguing approach to this psychological crime drama. Through dark comedy, McLean draws on the noir genre, complemented by lighting designer Stuart Jenkins’ use of shadows and light and an overall bleak turn. The story is non-chronological, jumping through time, showing both the court case and the pub crawl in question.

This is where the show loses its central identity. There are too many storylines, double-crossings and time jumps, to the point where the audience cannot follow the plot. What is compelling is Manuel himself, a man whose motives are purposefully unclear. He doesn’t know why he “does terrible things” – there could’ve been more made from this revelation.

The greatest strength of the production, one that should’ve been its sole focus, is the back and forth of Manuel and Watt. One man tries to frame the other; the other attempts to clear his name – a binary opposition that makes for great drama. Recall great cat-and-mouse psychological crime thrillers, Se7en, Silence of the Lambs and M – these delve deeply into the psyche of the hunter/hunted. By including a slew of side stories, it detracts from what could’ve been a juicy two-hander.

Nevertheless, credit is due to Brian Vernel. Usually an actor who plays minor antagonists in film and TV, Vernel’s performance as Manuel tricks the audience into believing that he is innocent until he lets slip his true, unstable mental state. He is simply riveting. Keith Fleming as William Watt orchestrates a man whose self-doubt plagues him at every step with exceptional believability.

Ultimately, The Long Drop is a prime example of a jack-of-all-trades, master of none. There are two backbones competing for the audience’s attention – the courtroom drama and the pub crawl. Could there have been a version where one is favoured, the production is stripped back, and the two men’s souls are laid bare?