Talking Moira Monologues and More
Linda Brown
I’m excited to be catching up with author, playwright and performer, Alan Bissett, midway through his demanding 17-night run at the Edinburgh Fringe with his new, hilarious hit play, When Billy Met Alasdair (more on that later).
“My head’s mince,” he confesses. “I hardly know what day of the week it is.”
I’m eager to chat about Alan’s upcoming ‘one-woman-show’ at Stewarton’s Area Centre on 3rd October, a double-bill of his famous Moira Monologues and More Moira Monologues. But first, I ask Alan to give AM readers a little bit about his background. When did he start writing?
“I started off as a teacher and a bookseller. I also worked at Grangemouth Oil Refinery and became a writer in 2001 when my first novel Boy Racers, based on my teenage years, was published. I became a full-time writer in 2007 and published another three books.”
Alan then moved into playwriting and has created several successful plays, including The Red Hourglass, and The Pure, the Dead, and the Brilliant, which starred Elaine. C Smith, but his first, written in 2009, was Moira Monologues.
“Moira Monologues is a play about Falkirk’s hardest woman, Moira Bell,” he says. “Once I’d written it, I thought, I need to find an actress, but there was something in the back of my heid saying, what if I was to do it? I thought playing Moira might make it more of a creative challenge for me, but also a bit of a high wire act for the audience – Oh, so the guy who’s written it, a novelist but not an actor… he’s playing this woman?”
Moria Monologues was a big hit, and Alan has continued Moira’s story in More Moira Monologues (2017) and Moira in Lockdown (2020). More recently he has toured the plays as a trilogy.
So, where did Alan get the idea for Moira Bell? Just who was the inspiration behind this tough wummin frae Falkirk?
“Moira is based on a lot of women from my family. I have a very female dominant family – really loud, strong women, great storytellers, quite hard in their own way, who’ve had difficult lives but come through stronger at the end. These were the sort of women who raised me. Moira is an amalgamation of my Auntie Tracy, my Auntie Kay, my Auntie Brenda, my cousin Kirsty, my sister, my gran – I put all their different personality traits into one loud character.”
Alan hopes the Moira plays are not only a tribute to the women in his family, but also to Scottish working-class women everywhere.
“They are the backbone of the country and often unsung heroes, so I wanted to see a character like Moira represented on the stage”
He’s keen to point out that Moira Monologues is not a drag show.
“I don’t come on in a frock, or a wig, or wearing make-up. I just come onstage as me, and let the writing, the performance and the body language do all the work.”
We discuss Alan’s talent of using humour to pull his audiences into his stories and allowing him to touch on more poignant and hard-hitting issues without becoming too grim.
“Humour provides a balance that allows me to get my theme across,’ he says.
I’m intrigued to learn more about Alan’s other works too. He tells me about his non-fiction book, Lads: A Guide to Respect and Consent published two years ago.
“Lads is a book of advice for young men about how to avoid being misogynists, and how to respect women’s boundaries.”
Alan hopes his book counterbalances the poisonous voices belonging to toxic influencers on the internet who target young males. Lads was awarded the School Library Association Information Book of the Year 2024, and Alan has been busy taking it to schools and giving talks on its themes to teenagers.
A mainstay of the Edinburgh Fringe for many years now, all Alan’s solo shows, including the Moira plays, have debuted there. This August he’s been performing When Billy Met Alasdair – Billy being the Big Yin, Billy Connolly, and Alasdair being respected Scots author, the late Alasdair Gray. The play is based on a photograph taken at the launch party of Gray’s iconic novel Lanark in 1981 which shows Billy getting his copy signed by Alasdair.
“I’ve always wondered what they talked about,” Alan laughs, “so I’ve invented a discussion they could have had.”
Alan plans to tour with When Billy Met Alasdair sometime in the future, and I ask if he has any other projects in the pipeline.
“As soon as the Fringe closes, I’m going to be working on a more traditional play, for a cast to perform, about the Witch Trials held in Paisley in the 1690s. It will be a serious play with characters based on the real people involved and will be premiered in Paisley Art Centre in March 2026.”
But back to Moira. Alan’s really looking forward to coming to Ayrshire and performing at Stewarton’s Area Centre.
“It’ll be a good night out,” he tells me. And… breaking news… this show might be one of the last chances theatregoers have to listen to Moira and hear about her shenanigans. Alan intends to retire Moira soon (and she’s only in her 50s!).
Having previously seen Alan perform extracts from Moira Monologues, I’m super excited to get my tickets, grab my bestie and go along to what will be a fantastic comedy double-bill. For me, Moira’s appeal lies in her relatability, and I’m not alone.
“After seeing the show people say to me ‘Oh, I know a woman like that,’ Alan laughs. “And there are Moiras everywhere. Everyone knows a Moira.”
Yes, I think I know a few! In fact, come to think of it, maybe I’m a wee bit of a Moira too. Any other Moiras out there? See you at Stewarton in October.
Moira Monologues and More Moira Monologues – Stewarton Area Centre – Friday 3rd October.
Tickets available at
www.eastayrshireleisure.com
www.alanbissett.com
