By Joy Watters, at the Byre Theatre

GLASGOW’S ORAN Mor has commissioned and produced 90 new shows over the past three years in its lunchtime season A Play, A Pie And A Pint.

The rest of the country is now able to see some of the most successful work on tour following an outing to the Edinburgh Fringe.

The Byre is hosting four of the productions in a brief run which ends tonight.

Although commissioned in the west coast, this double bill draws on talent from the east, for the first production is Excuse My Dust, Terry Wale’s portrait of legendary writer and wit Dorothy Parker, played by his wife Lesley Mackie.

Her previous incarnations of doomed performers such as Garland and Piaf have garnered plaudits and Parker’s story again shows her portraying a woman who belittles her achievements, her work as writer and reviewer.

The work incorporates some of the hilarious one-liners and the verse that made her name.

In a one-hour monologue Parker is shown looking back at the heyday of her career when in the 20s she was a unique figure, a woman in a man’s world of wit and wisdom that took no prisoners.

The mood is set with the blues and booze to the fore as, in self-deprecating mode, Parker says she was no wit just a wise-cracker.

Mackie brings out the sadness of a woman who realises that the good times have rolled.

However, there is no real display of the power of Parker and her deliverances which could destroy in just a few words.

Ae Fond Kiss is a completely different kettle of fish.

Written by Ann-Marie di Mambro for actress Libby McArthur (aka Gina in River City), it tells of a young lad’s birthday outing to a prostitute in Glasgow.

His lovely pals have collected the money for him and keep phoning to see if the dirty deed has been done.

The initial stages are hilariously embarrassing as poor Zed (played by Ceres-born Jim Webster) decides he cannot go through with the birthday treat.

Lola is a tart with a heart of gold and she sorts him out with a girl of his own age.

Realistic, it ain’t; an undemanding laugh, it is.

Today, there is a matinee of Tir Nan Og, which can be seen again in the evening with A Walk In The Park.