Inside the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow returns to its 1950s past in darkness and shadow, while outside the present-day city remains bright and ordinary. Denise Mina’s The Long Drop reimagines the story of serial killer Peter Manuel, and Linda McLean’s stage adaptation refuses to settle into either true-crime documentary or conventional thriller. Instead, the stage becomes a collision of testimony, memory and storytelling.
The Long Drop moves fluidly across time. The play opens in a foggy, coal-scented prison before shifting between the night before Manuel’s arrest and the public trial that cemented his notoriety across Scotland. Businessman William Watt, suspected by police of murdering his wife, sister-in-law and daughter in their beds, is convinced that Peter Manuel is the true culprit. With the help of his lawyer Laurence Dowdall, Watt meets Manuel in a pub. Each believes the other holds something he needs, and what follows is a tense nocturnal journey through Glasgow’s pubs and streets, fuelled by suspicion, violence and an atmosphere of relentless gloom.
Jen McGinley’s set and Stuart Jenkins’s lighting translate the story’s fractured chronology into a clear and effective theatrical language. A wooden courtroom frame dominates the stage against dark grey brickwork. The space is populated by only a handful of essential props: a bar counter, witness stand, table and chairs. Through subtle shifts in lighting and staging, the set transforms seamlessly from courtroom to pub, police station and domestic interior. The design accommodates layers of recollection within recollection without ever becoming confusing or cluttered.
The courtroom framing also suggests a story shaped by legal and public narratives. Lawyers address the judge while facing the audience, drawing spectators directly into the process of judgement. The steady accumulation of testimony briefly makes the production feel like a whodunnit, but McLean consistently resists that temptation. Manuel’s recollections are accompanied by live music and precise lighting cues that leave us uncertain what to believe. The presence of his mother, Brigit Manuel, seated almost motionless at centre stage throughout the second act, lends the proceedings a sombre inevitability. The production reconstructs the darkness of the case without ever disturbing its outcome.
True crime is rarely associated with laughter, yet Mina’s novel and McLean’s adaptation are punctuated by moments of distinctly Glaswegian humour. The comedy never diminishes the brutality at the story’s core but becomes part of the storytelling itself. It also reminds us that memory is never entirely reliable and that every version of events depends upon who is telling the story.
The excellent seven-member cast take on multiple roles with remarkable ease, often transforming in full view of the audience. Brian Vernel is magnetic as Peter Manuel: arrogant, narcissistic and deeply unsettling. One of his strongest moments comes when Manuel dismisses his defence team and chooses to represent himself, revealing a man both manipulative and intensely self-dramatising. Vernel’s gaze alone is enough to dominate a scene.
Keith Fleming brings a finely judged mixture of pride, insecurity and ambition to William Watt, maintaining a compelling restraint throughout. Mary Gapinski moves effortlessly between sharply contrasting female roles, while George Drennan transitions convincingly between figures of the underworld and representatives of authority.
The Long Drop culminates in Manuel’s execution, a moment as unsettling as the microphone suspended above centre stage throughout the evening. Yet the play’s real climax arrives elsewhere: not in the delivery of justice, nor in Manuel’s final loss of control over his own narrative, but in the lingering sense that his name survives long after the verdict has been delivered. It is a chilling reminder of how infamy endures, even when the story itself has reached its conclusion.
The Long Drop  – Drama
Written by Denise Mina
Adapted by Linda McLean
Directed by Dominic Hill
Cast Includes: Andy Clark, Martin Donaghy, George Drennan, Keith Fleming, Mary Gapinski, Robert Jack, Brian Vernel.
Until: 20th June 2026
Running Time: 2 hours 20 mins including an interval
Photo Credit: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan