Review: A History of Paper

Co-writers Oliver Emanuel and Gareth Williams’ neat but very touching play with songs reminds of the past two-handed Traverse romcom hit Midsummer, as a couple make sense of a life lived together through an old cardboard box filled with assorted scraps of paper; a Pizza Express receipt, notes left around the house, postcards, a folded paper rose.

He (Christopher Jordan-Marshall) has a hoarding instinct for such things as a means of holding on to memories; she (Emma Mullen) has no such time for sentimentality like this, preferring to travel light in her job as a globe-trotting lifestyle journalist. From the moment the first piece of paper enters their shared story – a note shoved through the door of his Glasgow flat telling him to turn down the maudlin late-night Radiohead – the leads bring their characters magnetic, relatable shared chemistry.

Andrew Panton directs with a lightness which perfectly channels the audience towards the play’s touching revelation, that old household detritus can be a powerful focus for grief and memory in a time of loss. The songs, as sung by the cast and played by Gavin Whitworth in piano accompaniment, drive the narrative beautifully, while the fact the play is Emanuel’s final posthumous work adds an extra layer of poignancy.