Review of Someone’s Knocking at the Door – In Search of the Mull of Kintyre’s Cache in Macca | stage

MEli Sweeney is a young writer gaining momentum. Her play The Color of Water, about the changing states of mind of two Glaswegians, was performed in Pitlochry last year, earning her the award for Best Debut Writer on Stage. Here, she kicks off the spring lunchtime season of Pie, Pie and Pint with a sweet, sweet story that turns a family tale into a quiet study of love, ambition, and the pain of breakup.

The film follows Jack and Cathy, who separately log in to online chats with their granddaughter to help with a school assignment on “Untold Scottish Stories.” They have a particularly good idea: on holiday in Campbelltown in the hot summer of 1976, they made an impromptu attempt to find Paul McCartney’s country retreat.

Sweeney gets a good deal of comedy from the contrasts in their narratives, and neither sees things quite from the other’s point of view, no matter how fateful the journey may be for both. Their history is common and different.

In Sally Reid’s production, Maureen Carr and Jonathan Watson play grandparents with the wisdom of age, as they look back without rancor at a mismatched couple brought together after a wedding, discovering too late what they want from life.

Jack’s obsession with the Fab Four goes beyond their songs. “If I can physically meet a Beatle, I can do anything I put my mind to,” he says. The band’s artistic achievement fuels his own ambition, while their evolution from friendship to acrimony mirrors the state of his marriage. Cathy is less obsessive, but sees their separation as an inevitable consequence of maturation.

If some of the historical details feel like they’re overlapping, and if the story, inspired by true events, sometimes feels more anecdotal than dramatic, Someone’s Knockin’ at the Door nonetheless takes an interesting route through the Mull of Kintyre to reach its poignant destination.