Tron Young Team

I don't often write about youth companies - not out of any deep disrespect, but a genuine sense that the usual critical cliches just won't work. In the USA, college sports have an entirely different audience to professional, and I think something similar happens in theatre. The purpose of student or community or amateur dramatics isn't the same.

That said, I feel safe enough previewing younger work, and I like the Tron anyway. So here's a quick shout to their Young Company.

The Tron Theatre’s up-and-coming youth collective, Tron Young Company, is pleased to present its new piece I Was Always Behind You, which will be staged from the 29^th – 31^st March in the theatre’s Changing House.  It has been devised, written, and will be performed by members of the weekly workshop for 18-25 year olds.  Following the success of their previous performances Remind Me Who I Am Again and From A City Balcony – a piece of work inspired by the poems of Edwin Morgan – I Was Always Behind You takes a poetic, surreal and often critical look at contemporary understandings of love, relationships and sacrifice.

For you I would crumble and reform.
I would rip my heart from my chest, place it in a neatly wrapped box
and give it to you for Christmas
I would get on my hands and knees and
crawl to the depths of darkness.
For you I would sell myself: body and soul.

Somewhere a man does something very, very stupid. He thinks it is a grand gesture of undying love and congratulates himself on the romantic tragedy of it all.  At the same time a woman enters a hotel in the middle of nowhere. She puts down her little red case, rings the bell three times and proclaims (loudly) that she is here to save him.

'...Director Lisa Gregan and her young team of actors create something warm, funny, deep and truthful (and) the material inspires an extraordinary series of poised and humorous performances from its young and gifted cast...' Joyce McMillan, THE SCOTSMAN on FROM A CITY BALCONY (2011)