Just another Saturday. Britain, then
as now, was a place of great inequality. Sectarian troubles in Northern
Ireland were at their height. Issues of Scottish independence/devolution
were in the spotlight, with the collapse of traditional industries such as
shipbuilding on the Clyde, and the associated poverty, mirrored by vast
wealth promised from North Sea oil in Scottish waters.
The play is about beliefs and innocence,
and the desire to escape. As Lizzie tells John, "at least you believe
in something"; Dan despises all "the organisations" on both
sides of the Glasgow Protestant/Catholic divide: he ridicules what he sees
their moral hypocrisies, like "suffering for the cause". There
is pointed irony in the fact that the only injury John incurs over the
whole day is from a confused drunk. Dan points out the divisions that the
organisations cause and the many contradictions from Scottish history that
make their positions absurd. His quiet socialist conviction is delivered
with great pathos.