TWO contributions in favour of the Yes vote in the indyref debate take us on very different journeys.

The Pitiless Storm by Chris Dolan (Assembly Rooms) is a one-man play featuring David Hayman (left) which is an unashamed polemic for a Yes but manages to avoid didacticism. When it’s at risk of veering into polemic, it is undercut by shafts of humour and pathos as it tells the story of Bob Cunningham.

He’s a well-respected TU official who prepares to speak to a party of his friends gathered to celebrate his receipt of an OBE. His journey reflects back on his life and his past relationships — with his father, his 17-year-old self and — most movingly — his ex-wife. 

As he does so he returns to his original principles and his speech veers from No to Yes.

In the hands of a less accomplished actor than Hayman the play could have misfired. That it doesn’t is not down to the message but to the realism of the writing and Hayman’s creation of a flawed, humorous and believable character. 

We’ve all met Bob Cunningham.

One point jars, though. His final break up with the love of his life is occasioned by a dispute over her participation on the big anti-Iraq war march — participation, he claims, that is tantamount to treachery to the Labour Party. Yet anyone on that huge Glasgow march would recall seeing many trade union and Labour Party banners. 

As a plea for a Yes vote, this play avoids the political traps but will it be a mobilising force for Yes? Not if the audience Q&A was anything to go by.

Based on David Bowie’s proxy request at the Brit awards for Scotland to “stay with us,” All Back To Bowie’s (Stand In The Square) is a good-humoured acceptance of his invitation to spend some time in his apartment.

Informal to a major degree — it changes from day to day —  All Back To Bowie’s usually involves a couple of performances and a discussion by other guests of a topic in Scotland from a Yes perspective. But it wears its politics lightly on its sleeve. 

When I attended the artists were singer Josephine Sillars — yep, Jim Sillar’s granddaughter — and performance poet Miko Berry. The  discussion on sport in an independent Scotland, while raising a number of good points,  did rather get “suffocated” by football — ironically one of the criticisms of how we “consume” sport in general — and it was intriguing how little an impact the independence issue makes.

The temptation for playwrights in creating a dramatic protagonist who is a public figure is to rely on “approved” sources and official biographies. Massaged — as they all too often are — away from revealing flaws and mistakes, these tend not to be the source of great drama. 

So it is with The Trial Of Jane Fonda by Terry Jastrow, who also directs the production. 

It tells the story of a confrontation between one-time anti-war activist Jane Fonda and a group of Vietnam vets in Waterbury, Connecticut, in 1988. There the actress faced a boycott of her film Stanley And Iris because of her trip to Hanoi, condemnation of the Vietnam war and US bombing.  

A promising story and all the elements of drama are there. But it does not catch fire. Its flaw is that the character of Fonda herself, despite the best efforts of Anne Archer, isn’t lifelike enough. In stark contrast to the veterans, whose stories hint at much greater drama, the character seems to have few flaws. Consequently, she doesn’t develop through the course of the action and the interest dwindles. 

Luckily, the drama surrounding the vets — angry, guilty and damaged men — helps to restore some dramatic focus. As one screams at Fonda as she asks for their absolution, “Where do we go for forgiveness?” 

I wanted to hear their discussion after the confrontation and the factors that led to them calling off their boycott. I’ll bet it would make great drama. Despite the interesting history, this isn’t. 

The Pitiless Storm is touring Scotland until September 15, details: fairpley.com