one4review | On 12, Aug 2026

What happens when clearing a family home becomes an exercise in clearing a lifetime of memories? In Woodcutter, Glaswegian writer and performer John Anthony Gorman turns the practical business of emptying his late parents’ house into an engaging piece of autobiographical storytelling.

Gorman bursts onto the stage with the kind of rapid-fire Glaswegian patter that immediately establishes his personality. He addresses the audience as though we are the removal men he’s hired to clear the house, explaining that he has only a day to get everything done. As an only child, the responsibility for dealing with everything following his parents’ deaths has fallen entirely on him.

The irony, of course, is that the clearance doesn’t go according to plan. Despite his determination to get on with the job, objects and rooms trigger memories, and the practical task of emptying the house gradually becomes a journey back through his childhood and family life.

Gorman is an accomplished storyteller and brings considerable energy to the performance. He recreates conversations with his parents, and between his parents, moving between chairs to play both roles. It is a simple theatrical device, but his commitment to the different roles makes it effective and frequently funny.

There is humour throughout, much of it rooted in Gorman’s Glaswegian background and the absurdities of family life, but the comedy is balanced by an underlying sense of loss. The house becomes more than a collection of furniture and possessions; it is a repository for memories that Gorman isn’t quite as ready to discard as he initially suggests.

At 50 minutes, Woodcutter is an intimate and accessible piece of storytelling. Gorman is an engaging performer who holds the audience’s attention with ease, making this a thoughtful and often amusing exploration of what remains when the people who made a house a home are no longer there.

****

Reviewed by Howard
Studio at theSpace Triplex

Until 29th August (not 16th, 17th, 23rd or 24th)
16.05 (50 mins)