A PLAY called Sally, in which an actor called Sally plays an actor called Sally playing the legendary role of Sally Bowles from Cabaret is enough to give anyone a nervous breakdown.

“It took me a while to get my head round it,” grins Sally Reid, best known as beat cop PC Sarah Fletcher in hit comedy TV show Scot Squad.

“It’s all a bit meta. The writer, James Ley, told me he had wanted to write a dressing room story, about an actor called Sally playing Sally Bowles, and thought – well, why not write it for Sally Reid? It is a bit bonkers.”

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She adds: “The Sally I’m playing is pretty wild though, and anyone who has ever shared a dressing room with me knows that is absolutely not like me at all.”

In the story, which kicks off the autumn season of Oran Mor’s lunchtime theatre series A Play, A Pie and A Pint, Sally the character decides to stage a Highlands and Islands tour of Cabaret, which famously starred Liza Minelli as Kit Kat Club singer Sally Bowles. Set in Berlin in 1931, the comings and goings of the stars and customers of the Kit Kat Club play out against the backdrop of rising Nazism.

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In the play, Sally’s version is successful, moving to bigger and better venues, and it starts to attract attention from Far Right supporters, prompting her to become paranoid her solo musical show is somehow helping to drive fascism around the country.

“There’s a serious undercurrent to the story, of course, but like all James’s plays, it’s done in a way that doesn’t feel earnest at all, it’s just fun to do,” explains Sally.

Being a “dressing room play”, in which the action unfolds behind the scenes at a theatre, prompted a few happy memories for Sally.

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“It did cross my mind during rehearsals, all the dressing room buddies I’ve had over the years,” she smiles. “One of the best was Top Girls in 2000 – it was all women, and we had such a bond.

“The thing about a dressing room is that it really is where you are most vulnerable – literally and figuratively ‘undressing’. It’s a place where you are honest and open with the people you’re sharing the stage with and there’s always a buzz, you can feel it in the air.”

She adds, with a laugh: “Theatre is seen as glamorous but the glamorous bit is the bit people see on stage. Not the exposed pipes and damp patches on the walls...but there is something glorious about that too, and I’ve made some amazing friendships over the years.”

Sally grew up in Perth, where she got her “big break” as a schoolgirl in a toothpaste ad.

“There was a casting director who lived in our street and she often scooped up local kids if she needed children for a shoot,” she smiles.

“That experience gave me a glimpse into this world and I thought, oh, that looks quite interesting, so I joined the local youth theatre.”

It was always “just for fun”, says Sally, until her senior years at school.

“It wasn’t until one of my teachers said, ‘you know you can do this as a job’, that I thought I’d give it a go,” she says. “I went to Langside College to study acting when I was 18 and then – I just got swept up in it all after that.”

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Since then, Sally has carved a career as a successful and award-winning stage and screen actor, appearing in the National Theatre of Scotland’s The James Plays, How to Disappear at the Traverse, an assortment of pantomimes, and The Chookie Brae for Borderline. She has directed and acted at PPP before, and her TV work includes roles in River City, Two Doors Down and of course, Scot Squad.

“We have such a laugh on that show,” she says. “It has been almost 10 years since the pilot, seven series and it’s a great show to work on.

“It kind of benchmarks your year, getting the chance to meet up with everyone and work with so many great actors.”

When she is not acting or directing, Sally’s other love is jewellery-making and she runs pop-up shops celebrating the work of independent designers and artists.

“I think it stems from my granny, who ran an antique shop in Perthshire,” smiles Sally. “I love jewellery-making and my ‘in-between’ job when I was in my 20s was in a jewellery shop in Shawlands.

“In Glasgow, Blythe Duff and I opened a pop-up shop which was really successful, and it’s something I’d like to do again.”

It’s unlikely to be soon, however, as straight after her run at Oran Mor, Sally is heading to Pitlochry to play Shirley Valentine.

“I haven’t actually been on stage since 2019, so I’m making up for the lack of doing it, that’s for sure,” she adds, with a laugh. “It’s a bit nerve-wracking, to do Sally, and then an iconic role like Shirley Valentine – it’s a real challenge.

“Being back at Oran Mor – this will be my fifth time acting, and I have directed here too – is amazing though, and I can’t wait. There’s such a buzz at this theatre – that sense of a shorter rehearsal time, so decisions have to be made fast and there is no time for over-thinking, you’ve just got to do it…”

Sally smiles: “I’m really looking forward to it.”

Sally is at Oran Mor from Monday, September 5 until Saturday, September 10.