Byrne is back on court with first play in 13 years

JOHN Byrne’s new play is the playwright’s first in 13 years, though that is gilding the lily somewhat for Tennis Elbow (★★★✩✩ pitlochryfestivaltheatre.com, lyceum.org.uk).

Instead what we have is a slightly reworked, mirror image version of his hit 1977 Fringe comedy Writer’s Cramp.

This time around it is given a female makeover, and with just enough extra flourishes and shift of focus to qualify as a stand-alone piece. But only just. Tennis Elbow finds Byrne, pictured, author of The Slab Boys Trilogy and Tutti Frutti, following a similar bent in tracing the doomed attempts of failed poet and writer Francis McDade’s estranged wife Pamela CrichtonCapers (an engaging, vibrant turn from Kirsty Stuart), to likewise carve out a place for herself in the cultural landscape.