THERE'S something strange going on here. Twice in a week, I find myself watching shows produced by shoestring touring companies well outside the mainstream of Scottish arts funding. And twice I am confronted by theatre that seems far more vividly connected to the real life of Scotland than most of the work I review; the NTS should be observing, and taking note. The first show was Mike Gibb's flawed but passionate Lest We Forget, about the Piper Alpha disaster of 1988 and the second is Des Dillon's populist but powerful examination of sectarianism, playing in Edinburgh this weekend.

The scene is a Glasgow police cell, where Celtic supporter Tim and Rangers supporter Billy find themselves literally thrown together - under the benign care of troubled police officer Harry - after a series of pre-match arrests. The arc of the story is simple, and the play wears its anti-sectarian heart unashamedly on its sleeve. It sometimes flirts with unthinking nationalism as an antidote to bigotry, as well as with a more robust politics of humanity and class; and it piles on the schmaltz, in the story of Harry's sick grandson.

But the sheer vitality of the theatrical writing - the seamless combination of verbal wit and raw kinetic energy, and the pure dynamic strength of the play's structure - makes Stephen Cafferty's production, with two outstanding performances from Colin Little and Scott Kyle, feel like one of the shortest and most gripping two-hour shows in current Scottish theatre. And this show not only raises issues our society urgently needs to confront, but also attracts an audience that would never otherwise darken a theatre door; unless we count those big arenas at Parkhead and Ibrox, where such an important part of the national drama is still played out, week after week.