The Saltmarket Six: Retelling of a little known Glasgow story (theatre review) 3 stars

Ayrshire’s Theatre Alliance are making a solid career out of bringing little known Scottish stories and putting them on a stage. Their ability to enliven and enrich these stories was seen in previous productions from 2025, The Devil’s Mark and The Tumbling Lassie. Their craft is once again on display here with the Saltmarket Six. Blending movement and narrative, this tells the story of six young people charged with the murder of fellow young person, James Tait after a brawl at the Albert Bridge in Glasgow. 

The Saltmarket Six fills in the background with a mix of projected headlines supported by the introduction of characters who are to be principals in the narrative. In the shadow of the First World War and an economic depression that saw many in the city of Glasgow unemployed, families are struggling with many being laid off the seeking unsuccessfully new employment. Another form of family – the gang – is shown when we see two the Young Calton and the Young Southside Stickers – meeting up to decide what film they should take in at the pictures as friends rather than rivals. Discord is not far away.

It begins with someone losing an eye, then one girl accuses another of being over familiar with their boyfriend, and then when the Young Calton call for a fight, reluctantly the Stickers agree. It follows individual clashes which have left bruises on the faces of almost all the members of each gang.

In between it all is one young lad, a member of neither, a friend of one of the Stickers, wanting to go to university, forced through poverty to contemplate a life in a factory like his father, left wounded after their scores were not settled. Dying days later the six are rounded up by a polis more interested in dealing with the villainy than dealing with the causes of villainy. We then watch the system chew up young lives and leave them with long sentences and all too obvious futures. 

Theatre Alliance have placed lost youth and the callousness of the times and the systems at the heart of their drama. This works. In an age of the Manosphere documentary from Louis Theroux and Adolescence from last year, the effects of toxic masculinity are today’s topic of discussion. 

There are elements, however, that need polishing and tidying up. 

The beginning starts with a lot of theme-heavy information which could be more focused on the story of the narrative of these six young people. There are some nice interludes through dance and movement pieces moving us from one section to another which at the beginning is interesting to watch but over time begins to lose its focus. There are really good sections – changing the people in the interrogation rooms is highly effective, so too is not having a death announcement but just the nurse entering with the folded clothes of James that announce to us and James’ father Willie that there has been a death in his family.

There are multiple opportunities to bring the show to an end, and we get several places from the verdicts to the epilogue to achieve that. It felt like the old cliché that the director needed to take the writer out for a lunch to discuss. Given they are both the same person, it would be a cheaper lunch than most. The value, however, of ending with a poignancy is lost because it becomes exposition rich and heavy with explanation. 

Technically it has a few issues to iron out. lighting states that flashed a bit here and there and the balcony which was relatively well used in the second half saw people going in and out of doors which then open with the flood of light in your eye line which could be quite distracting. Some of the entrances and exits, coupled with actors playing multiple parts going from a character of authority to a character in a gang was not marked well enough. Perhaps the egalitarian need to have all 19 in everything should be trimmed to using the relevant characters onstage to perform the transitions. It would give more focus and less to learn, enhancing the depth of character we experience. 

The big plus is the 19 community and ensemble cast. The enthusiasm they had to literally watch over their fellow actors, though distracting was also a reminder of their engagement with the art and the story. There was a very strong feeling of pride. With only two males on the cast this was carried with a feminine guile and understanding of the vulnerability of youth that worked well. 

This was a bold retelling of a story that’s hardly known. In the context of the time in which we live it is right that artistic organisations like Theatre Alliance should focus on the current state of support for our young people, and the consequences of getting it wrong. What it needs theatrically is tightening but you get the sense that if anyone can iron out the kinks, it’s this crew. 

The Saltmarket Six

The Boardwalk, Glasgow 

Review Date Sunday 15^th March 2026