Theatre Alba

The Scotsman
Tuesday, 15th August 2000

Josef

PLAYWRIGHT Raymond Ross is one of many children of Polish-Scottish marriages living in Scotland today. Refugees from Nazi-occupied Poland fled to Scotland in exile and fell in love.
Set in both Poland and Scotland over an epic sweep of time, Ross's two-and-a-half-hour celebration of his father's life is massive and momentous in the way we expect Slavic art to be.
The script moves the Glasgow police force symbolically into the role of Gestapo when Josef is arrested late in life, in widowerhood, for shoplifting.

Jeffrey Daunton's Josef is inspired; he is believable, proud and touching. Director Charles Nowosielski, also of Polish-Scottish heritage, makes the most of the script's potential for the dramatic, using the whole venue space to stage flashbacks of the war and appearances of Josef's dead wife in waking dreams............

Bonnie Lee