Bingo Dramaturgy: Anita Vettesse & Johnny McKnight @ Stellar Quines

 Grid Iron and Stellar Quines present 

Bingo!

A new musical comedy. An unforgettable night at the bingo.

“Have you ever done a bad thing, like really bad?”

“Yeah. I started Breaking Bad when our Davey was on the night-shift.”

A new musical comedy focusing on lives of six characters and one fateful night at the bingo. 

Bingo! tours Scotland in March and April 2018.

Every week more than 2 million women pour into local bingo halls across the UK, each one hoping that all elusive HOUSE will change their fortunes forever. Daniella’s one of those women. Except she isn’t just hopeful. She’s desperate. She needs Lady Luck to smile down on her tonight. She’s done a bad thing. No, a really bad thing and if her card doesn’t have those winning numbers, she’s going to have to resort to desperate measures to take home that prize money.

Tour dates:
Assembly Hall, Edinburgh: 6-7 March 7.30pm (previews) and 8-17 March 7.30pm (not Sunday 11th), 10 & 17 March 2.30pm (matinees)

Macrobert Arts Centre, Stirling: 22-23 March 7.30pm, 23 March 2.30pm (matinee)

Ayr Gaiety Theatre, Ayr: 27-28 March 7.30pm

The Brunton, Musselburgh: 31 March at 2pm and 7.30pm

Tron Theatre, Glasgow: 12-14 April at 7.45pm

Eden Court, Inverness: 19-21 April 7.30pm, 21 April 2.30pm (matinee)

What was the inspiration for this performance?

A: We were commissioned by Stella Quines and Grid Iron to write a play/ musical about Bingo.  So that was out starting point.  Then we just sat and talked and talked about what Bingo meant to us and our associations with it and then developed our story and characters from there.

Is performance still a good space for the

public discussion of ideas? 

 A: Totally. There’s nothing nicer hearing audiences leave a theatre and be in debate or arguments over what they’ve just seen. It starts conversations.

J:  Theatre transports you in a way I don't think TV or cinema does.  The sweat is there in front of you, the live experience has jeopardy, anything can (and sometimes does) go wrong.  I think that intensity of watching cant help but make you think and feel on a deeper level, with that comes discussion, debate, rage, empathy. 

How did you become interested in making performance?

 A: For me I wrote as I needed to be able to create work on my own (having been an actor for 20 years) and relying on other people to give me work. Also I was of an age that I felt I needed to try something new and terrifying.  Which it was and still is.

J:  It became a necessity for me.  I was cast in quite a few camp light parts when I graduated.  I decided I'd do my own camp instead.   It started

with devising in a group but, after a while, that started to feel like a compromise to what I wanted to say or investigate (or maybe I just got more anti-social as I got older!?!?) 

Is there any particular approach to the making of the show?

 A: We both know one another really well so approaching this show was lots of chatting and story sharing and we begun with characters and then put them in a scenario we thought they’d work well in. The story changed from first draft – but the characters remained the same…we just wanted in second draft to make life harder for them and see how they coped.

J: there was a lot of post-it notes.  A lot of coffee.  A lot of telling stories about people we knew and things that made us laugh.  I think this was a completely different thing for us both, we've never written as a team with anyone else before, we're so used to being the solo voice.  Surprisingly it took a lot of the angst and dread out of writing, that fear that can cripple you at times, it wasn't there for this one.  It felt like you'd let the other person down if you weren't firing on and trying to make them laugh, or move them. 

Does the show fit with your usual productions?

 A: This is a first musical for me. A first at co-writing as well. I’ve loved working with Johnny but I think that comes from years of being pals we have a shorthand. I think the themes and the humour is quite similar to things we’ve explored before…but the story / music is different.

J: I think yes and no.  Anita and me are good friends and we have a lot of similar tastes and view the world through similar lenses, so I think anyone familiar with either of our work will still

see us individually in the piece.  

However two minds can only be better than one so we've really looked at it from a hundred possible angles.  Personally, working with another person has pushed me harder – make it funnier, brighter, shorter, be economical, fight for your ideas.  Its like working with a dramaturg on your own material all the way through the process. 

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

A: A good night out firstly. A tear too and to leave the theatre feeling they want to organise a night with their pals and go to the bingo!

J:  I want them to fall in love with theatre, to forget its crap weather outside, to laugh with wild abandon, and to remember the power

With cracking original songs, a lot of banter and cheeky humour, Bingo! is co-written by Anita Vettesse & Johnny McKnight, with music by Alan Penman and directed by Stellar Quines’ Artistic Director Jemima Levick.

Cast of Bingo! includes stars of British stages and television such as Louise McCarthy (Daniella) of BBC’s Scot Squad and Two Doors Down, Wendy Seager (Mary) who played Susan inKilling me Softly and featured in Still Game, Barbara Rafferty (Joanna), star of River City, Brave New World, Rab C Nesbitt and The Last King of Scotland film, Jo Freer (Ruth) who starred in Dundee Rep’s Sunshine on Leith as well as River City, Darren Brownlie (Donny) known from Dundee Rep’s Witness for the Prosecution and BBC Scotland’s Scot Squad as well as Tron Theatre’s pantomime and Jane McCarry(Betty), Still Game’s Isa and Scottish pantomime star who also played Dolly in Tony Roper’s The Steamie and featured in Rab C Nesbitt.

Bingo! reflects the current state of affairs for many people living in the UK, for whom a visit to a bingo hall is both a night out and a financial plan. Brought to Scottish stages by two award-winning Edinburgh-based theatre companies: site-responsive specialists Grid Iron and Stellar Quines, who celebrate the diversity of women and girls, Bingo! promises to be a show that entertains and provokes.

Bingo! receives its world premiere at Assembly Hall in Edinburgh. The show then goes on tour to venues around Scotland, including Stirling, Ayr, Musselburgh, Glasgow and Inverness.

Jemima Levick, Artistic Director of Stellar Quines said: “As one of Scotland’s longest serving touring companies, Stellar Quines’ work is created to inspire women & girls, and the men that know them.  We realise that women and girls come in different shapes and sizes and with a variety of tastes and expectations, so our programme of work aims to respond with broad appeal.

Every time I read Bingo! or hear it read aloud, I am reminded of just how brilliant women are.  It’s a play about comradery, friendship, parenthood, and strength in numbers, but also about hope, and ‘that’ fantasy that we all have – of how our lives might change with that big win.  It’s a play that never fails to take me by surprise, it makes me laugh and cry. 

We are particularly delighted to be co-producing alongside our long-time colleagues, Grid Iron.  It’s a collaboration that’s based on many of the qualities of this play, so we’re thrilled to be on that journey with them.”

Judith Doherty, Co-Artistic Director of Grid Iron said: “Grid Iron have been talking to Jemima about Bingo! for quite some time so, when she took over the helm at Stellar Quines, it seemed the perfect opportunity to bring together two Edinburgh companies who share a mission to provide strong roles for women on and off stage.  Anita and Johnny have written a truly cracking script and I would bet on it that we’ll hear people humming Alan’s music as they head down the street after the show.

Although Grid Iron are best known for site-responsive work, this is far from the first time we’ve toured work for the stage and indeed, isn’t our first musical either. We’re really looking forward to taking Bingo! out on the road and are delighted to be travelling with Stellar Quines.”

Sharon Burgess, Assembly Managing Director said: “Assembly are thrilled to be working with two such prestigious Scottish Theatre Companies to present work at Assembly Hall out with the month of August. We very much look forward to hosting the world premiere of Bingo! in March next year.”

Dramaturgy Trap: Johnny McKnight @ Dundee Rep

BROADWAY SMASH HIT COMEDY-THRILLER, DEATHTRAP OPENS SOON AT DUNDEE REP

With an exceptional cast assembled and an exciting creative team ready to go, Dundee Rep Ensemble’s first show of 2018 begins with the most successful thriller in Broadway history. Today, rehearsals begin for the highly anticipated production of Ira Levin’s Deathtrap – performed by the award-winning Dundee Rep Ensemble.

Deathtrap will run from Tuesday 20 February – Saturday 10 March at Dundee Rep Theatre.

What was your inspiration for this performance? 

Deathtrap by Ira Levin is a clear play upon the popular thrillers that have went before it - Dial M For Murder, Sleuth, Rope, Gaslight.  The piece plays with the genre, plays with the idea of what sort of mind would write one of these thrillers and, indeed, are they a clear thrill seeker just like the devious minds of the characters that live within the play.  

There’s an over-arching meta angle running through the play that - despite it being written in the late 70s - still makes it feel questioning and interrogating of the theatricality it presents.  In terms of how I’m directing the piece I’m drawing reference on all of that genre - the work of Hitchcock, film noir and, indeed, those thrillers that are referenced throughout the piece.  

How did you become interested in making performance?

I studied at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland on the Contemporary Theatre Practice course (now CPP).  The work we made was devised performance but, as I developed through the course I started to get interested in how the process of devising can become a written piece of work.  My initial work was devised in the room with a group of performers but then I started to get frustrated at the lack of a cohesive voice, or author.  From there I started to write, and then adding ten years onto that journey and exploration, I veered on an entirely new path - my interest being in written text - work thats made in the room from a very cohesive and structured blueprint of an author.  

Is performance still a good space for the public discussion of ideas?

Absolutely.  The exciting thing about being in a rehearsal room is that you and the actors and the production team are there to try and solve a problem - how to present a play/an idea/a story.  How do we tell that story?  Through whose eyes?  What attitude and view do we place on that story?  How do we wish to present it to an audience?  I think theatres at its best when its audience is engaged and questioning.  

Answers aren’t required but that moment that draws an audience forward in the their seat - that’s where the magic is - that moment where the question on stage draws us in further, makes us wonder what will happen next.  Theatres at its best when it questions, not answers.  

Is there any particular approach to the making of the show?

I think my approach differs from piece to piece.  its about working with the creative team, finding a way for all of us to work through the piece and examine it as rigorously as possible.  I always have a few ground rules that I think I need for myself.  

Does the show fit with your usual productions?

In some ways its a bit of a departure, normally I suppose I work with my own new writing (and I guess I work a lot on comedy).  This piece is different though - tonally, story wise.  It's American in flavour, heightened and operatic at times, there’s a sense of melodrama that runs through it.  That's quite a departure from my normal Scottish based work.  

However I think when you have a piece of writing like this script -  that’s so taut and tight and well thought out - you’re starting rehearsals with a  real sense of security (my own insecurities of being the author are, indeed, chucked out the window which is nice).  What it all comes down to is telling a good story, and this ones pretty bloody great it has to be said.  

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

I want the audience to experience exactly what I felt when I read the script for the first time - the thrill of the story, the twists and turns and thrills that keeps me turning the page with a  real sense of excitement.  

I want to make sure we capture the laughs and thrills and jeopardy that I felt for the characters when I first read it.  For me, theatres at its very best when its unapologetically entertaining, when it absolutely grabs its audience and doesn’t let it go for the whole performance, that’s what we’re all hoping to find in our production of Deathtrap.   
Dundee Rep is thrilled to welcome award-winning writer and director, Johnny McKnight who will be directing for the first time at the Rep. Perfectly combining suspense and humour; this Tony Award-nominated play offers twists and turns, as well as laughs. 


McKnight brings this truly satisfying spine-chiller with gasps and giggles that is guaranteed to surprise and challenge audiences. Deathtrap promises a maze of shock plot twists, following washed-out playwright Sidney Bruhl who hasn’t had a hit play in years, we witness how far he will go to become a Broadway hit once again.

This edge-of-the-seat production of this murder-mystery play stars the Rep’s resident Ensemble members Ewan Donald, Lewis Howden, Irene Macdougall, and Emily Winter alongside new graduate apprentice, Tom England – who is making his main stage debut at the Rep. 

Speaking about what audiences can expect from this iconic play, Johnny McKnight, Director, said:

“I’m delighted to be working at Dundee Rep. As my first time working at the theatre I’ve admired the plethora of excellent productions presented at the Rep over the years: from Sunshine On Leith to Great Expectations, The Cheviot, The Stag and The Black Black Oil to And Then There Were None. I’ve always been struck by the sheer versatility and power of the Rep actors, so to finally have the opportunity to work with them is a real joy. The script Deathtrap proved irresistible - where else can you find a thriller that so enjoys playing with its audience, taking them through a maze of twists and turns, providing shocks and belly laughs.  I’ve always said that theatre’s at its best when it’s at its most entertaining, Deathtrap provides us with this – it’s full of gasps, giggles and horror. Our aim for this production is to give the audience at Dundee Rep a real rollercoaster of a night out.” 





Cast List

Ewan Donald

Tom England (Graduate Actor)

Lewis Howden

Irene Macdougall

Emily Winter

The House of Dramaturgy: Johnny McKnight @ Edfringe 2015

The Fringe
What inspired this production: did you begin with an idea or a script or an object?

I began with things coming together - first of all Robert asked me to collaborate with BoP - we both agreed that we wanted to do something that put disability on stage as opposed to not mentioned. I’d always had an idea I wanted to do something about on-line ap/hook up dating as its become so huge (and I also knew that I didn't want to do another Little Johnny show). Thirdly I’d met Amy when she was a student and on placement with NTS (she came in and watched rehearsals of Wicker Man). I thought she was really funny and beautiful but wondered if she’s ever get cast as sexy… All those things sort of came together when I sat down to write…

Wendy Hoose hits the Assembly Rooms, Ballroom (Venue 20) 17-30 Aug

Time 3.30pm : Tickets £15/£13  : Box office 0844 693 3008 

Getting your leg over has never been so hard!

The creative forces of Birds of Paradise & Random Accomplice are back by popular demand with the frank and hilarious sex comedy - Wendy Hoose. 

After two sell out tours in 2014, this ‘gorgeous, cheeky and outspoken’ (Scotsman) production is back and taking on the Fringe!

The acclaimed smash hit comedy follows the story of Laura and Jake. Who just want sex. Late Friday night drunken sex. Nothing more. No strings attached. But getting your leg over is sometimes more difficult than you think. Containing strong language and scenes of a sexual nature, Wendy Hooseis the story of two twenty year olds searching for love in all the wrong places! Especially when those places involve the fickle and flirty world of dating apps.

Wendy Hoose, directed by Robert Softley Gale and Johnny McKnight, joins Jake (James Young – The Incredible Adventures of See Thru Sam, Slick, Outlander) on his quest for some late night fun with Laura (Amy Conahan – Skeleton Wumman, Let’s Talk About Sex) via a mobile phone dating app. All is going well thanks to some sexting, but things take a twist when it comes down to the nitty gritty, and the course of true love, or in this case sex, does not run smoothly.

Johnny McKnight, Co-artistic Director, Random Accomplice added: “We wanted to make a comedy about the nightmare that is dating today. Trying to negotiate dating and drinking on a Friday night is hard enough - throw a Tindr or Grindr into the mix and there's potential for a story that you're going to share for months to come. Wendy Hoose is one possible story.”

Why bring your work to Edinburgh?

Honestly, we love the show and its always a joy to do it. Also I’d love for it to have a further life again, we really feel we've made something different and unique and funny with a brilliant creative team. It should find an audience as wide as possible.

What can the audience expect to see and feel - or even think - of your production?

Laugh. that’s the priority. and also think - what are we really looking for on those aps? Is it love but we’re distracted by sex. 

The Dramaturgy Questions

How would you explain the relevance - or otherwise - of dramaturgy within your work?

That’s quite a difficult question. I guess I'm in a lucky position because a lot of the time I direct my own writing so there’s a constant flow of writer/dramaturg/director. I'm really easy about being fluid between those roles - happy to cut stuff when I know it doesn't work on stage - happy to rewrite stuff when I dont like it in the room. I guess I dramaturg myself a lot...

What particular traditions and influences would you acknowledge on your work - have any particular artists, or genres inspired you and do you see yourself within their tradition?
I think I'm influenced by soooo much popular culture - from panto/vaudeville to live art confessional theatre. I think I'm really aware of the audience and I create most things with them in mind. Sometimes I find it difficult to find a genre that I fit - mainly because I don't know if I sit comfortably anywhere in life in general.

Do you have a particular process of making that you could describe - where it begins, how you develop it, and whether there is any collaboration in the process?

I don't actually have a fixed process - it always starts with terror and then moves forward - sometimes it can grow from an image (See Thru Sam was absolutely built in visuals alongside me testing out various pieces of script). Our most successful processes have seemed to be when we work closely with the a writer - then spend a week in development with actors reading (and the writer furiously redrafting) as we try to find as simple and clean a way to tell the story. Collaboration is always the key - as it should be.


What do you feel the role of the audience is, in terms of making the meaning of your work?
I think the audience is THE reason the work is on the stage. I know some people think you have to not look or think about the audience but I come at work from a very different place. I constantly think about how I want the audience to feel, to react, whether the story is told in an interesting and clear way, whether I am deliberately confusing or alienating the audience (and why I am). 

 I always feel I've worked on a successful piece when the audience want to be in the world that’s been created on stage. That’s the aim.

Are there any questions that you feel I have missed out that would help me to understand how dramaturgy works for you?

Not really - though there’s a bigger discussion/conversation about WHAT is dramaturgy. I've heard and seen people use it in so many different contexts that I genuinely still ask what it is. It still feels, to me, to be a sort of job that’s up there in the ether. I dont know if I could clearly define it because I think so many different theatre makers have a different definition for it. 

Wendy Hoose

Photograph by Eamonn McGoldrick

The creative forces of Birds of Paradise & Random Accomplice are back by popular demand with the frank and hilarious sex comedy - Wendy Hoose.


After two sell out tours in 2014, this ‘gorgeous, cheeky and outspoken’ (Scotsman) production is back and taking on the Fringe!


The acclaimed smash hit comedy follows the story of Laura and Jake. 

Who just want sex. 

Late Friday night drunken sex. 

Nothing more. No strings attached. 

But getting your leg over is sometimes more difficult than you think. 

Containing strong language and scenes of a sexual nature, Wendy Hoose is the story of two twenty year-olds searching for love in all the wrong places! 

Especially when those places involve the fickle and flirty world of dating apps.


Wendy Hoose, directed by Robert Softley Gale and Johnny McKnight, joins Jake (James Young – The Incredible Adventures of See Thru Sam, Slick, Outlander) on his quest for some late night fun with Laura (Amy Conahan – Skeleton Wumman, Let’s Talk About Sex) via a mobile phone dating app. All is going well thanks to some sexting, but things take a twist when it comes down to the nitty gritty, and the course of true love, or in this case sex, does not run smoothly.


Johnny McKnight, Co-artistic Director, Random Accomplice added: “We wanted to make a comedy about the nightmare that is dating today. Trying to negotiate dating and drinking on a Friday night is hard enough - throw a Tindr or Grindr into the mix and there's potential for a story that you're going to share for months to come. Wendy Hoose is one possible story.”


All performances include audio description, BSL & animated surtitles in the comedic style of the show.





Wendy Hoose is part of the Made in Scotland Showcase.

Wendy Hoose was nominated for a Critics Award for Theatre in Scotland 2014 in the Best Technical Presentation category.

CATS 2014: Shortlist for Male actor and Thoughts

BEST MALE PERFORMANCE:

Adam Best (Raskolnikov), Crime and Punishment, Citizens Theatre, Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse and Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh
Looking pretty hardcore in this photo (credit: Tim-Morozzo), Best got to play a dream part: the existential hero of Dostoevsky's novel that saved me from wondering whether it was okay to break the law if I was cool enough (it isn't). A big role, that addressed the audience on matters philosophical and went increasingly wild as the guilt heated up, Best's performance was an intriguing mix of bad-ass and sensitive poet. Just like Raskolnikov himself...






Jimmy Chisholm (Bob Lawson), The Collection, Rapture Theatre in association with the Beacon Greenock

While Tam Dean Burn played the guy you really wouldn't want turning up to the door, Chisholm pulled on his natural stage presence to present Bob Lawson, Scotland's answer to that one in Death of A Salesman. In a play that is earnest and horrific (shades of the fast-talking bastards who hide behind lovely adverts for extortionate loans), Lawson's tragedy is the problem of giving a shit in an industry of shits. 

Sandy Grierson (Ivor Cutler), The Beautiful Cosmos of Ivor Cutler, Vanishing Point and the National Theatre of Scotland presented in association with Eden Court
Being Ivor Cutler was always going to be a tough gig: add in (Grierson's own co-written) version of the man, who dances in his imagination, and a storytelling structure that has Grierson jump between himself and Cutler, then Grierson had a showcase for versatility. Sometimes he was Ivor the confused older man, sometimes the laconic singer, other times the cheeky outsider. 

Scott Reid (Thomas), A Perfect Stroke, A Play, a Pie and a Pint presented by the Traverse Theatre Company
A month after seeing this, I can't decide whether Reid's Thomas was a victim or predator. It's a tough ask to play a schoolboy having at go at seducing the teacher, and Reid's big red face when he got angry suggests he'll be playing Lear at some point in the future. With McKnight's script awkward and subtle, Reid's role was pivotal for the sense of sexual unease. He is doing some acting exercises in the photo (credit:  Lesley Black), I think. Perfectly innocent

Dear Scotland: Five Suggestions

Further to my post on Dear Scotland, the NTS have challenged me to guess which writer has picked which portrait. I am going to have a crack at it. Five at a time...

Cunningham Graham

Johnny McKnight is going to go for James Boswell. The monologue concerns that time he had a few too many cheeky Vimtos on the Grassmarket and woke up with a right howler in bed next to him.

Zinnie Harris choose Robert Louis Stephenson. A sequel to his famous novel, Stephenson relates the time that he was stuck in a post-apocalyptic wasteland and had to kill and eat a horse. In darkness.

Louise Welsh brings Robert Burns to life, through a story of how he took a bunch of dirty pictures of Mary Campbell and was the subject of a police investigation.

Rob Drummond has a crack at James I: a mild-mannered English king by day, he switched his crown at night to become James VI of Scotland, the Bonny Ruffian of the square-circle.

Hardeep Singh Kohli fancies Cunningham Graham: while cooking up a three course meal, Graham explains why he helped to found the SNP.

Arise, McKnight of the Pantomime

Just as soon as I decided to make a grand pronouncement - about pantomimes - somebody had to prove me wrong. I probably ought to have paid more attention when Robert Dawson Scott mentioned it a few years ago, but Johnny McKnight has found a way around the problem of pantomime being stuck in a tedious repetition.

Aganeza Scrooge is a welcome surprise: not only does McKnight mash up a traditional festive story and the whole pantomime ritual, he does it with a surprising panache. When I spoke to him for The Skinny, he admitted that pantomime had not really been his childhood introduction to theatre and that he had approached it from the perspective of a performance artists (he's a graduate of the Contemporary Performance Practice course at the RCS, although they called both things something different when he was there). Most encouragingly, he dumps the final sing-along, runs with the idea of a sympathetic villain who experiences a moral conversion and uses the self-consciousness of pantomime to poke fun at its more predictable excesses.

Although this is far from my fantasy of a politically engaged, populist show that rescues theatre from television's hegemony, Aganeza Scrooge doesn't feel like a ready-made, identikit show - something even the much-loved Forbes Masson pantomimes were slipping towards. McKnight keeps the sly slaps at other productions, even mocking the reliance on cheeky toilet humour, and the ritualistic energy: his love of popular culture, however, is a sharp contrast to its increasingly cynical inclusion in most other pantomimes. It is driven along by McKnight's personality, even if he is in drag and playing a Victorian miser. It connects back to his earlier Big Gay Trilogy by hooking his character to deeper, more universal themes.

There are still plenty of fart gags, and McKnight torments his audience as well as any other dame: but his comedy is more serious, more alert and there's even one-liners that aren't signposted twenty minutes in advance. It's not quite a revolution yet, but it is a sign that pantomime could be original as well as popular.

At the Tron until 5 January

The Pantosphere

This man is the King of the Palace, Kilmarnock

It's December and the theatres are committed to a popular art form. Aside from the odd resistance from the cabaret community - there's Torture Garden and Missy Malone's burlesque evening and the more experimental artists of Anatomy - it's either pantomimes or, for the more sophisticated families, the Christmas themed entertainment.

The bursts of cabaret make sense: sharing the heritage of vaudeville with pantomime, they can take advantage of a lively audience in need of warmth and fun in the darkness months. On the west coast of Scotland, however, the dominance of pantomime has led to each of the different venues finding their own, distinctive version. The King's Theatre has the slick, professional show - now challenged by the SECC - the Tron gives it a Glaswegian twist, now teaming up with Johnny McKnight after years of Forbes Masson scripts - and the Pavilion is the anarchic, slightly risque remix: Jim Davidson might not be in it this year, but his appearance for two years does explain the tone and target audience.

The changing face of pantomime

Despite these regional variations, pantomime is innately conservative: there are a variety of set-pieces (in Kilmarnock, Liam Dolan has been rewriting similar scenes into different plots for eight years), the jokes are supposed to be bad and the audience interaction is ritualistic. A bad pantomime is marked by the failure of the cast to get these routines swinging. The usual parameters of good theatre - remembering lines, strong characterisation, consistent pace and structure - are replaced by the need to make sure that the audience are disruptive in the right way.

In a recent interview with The Skinny, McKnight pointed out that many of the tropes of pantomime are shared with the sort of performance emerging from the Live Art scene. Brecht's rejection of "the fourth wall" is mirrored by pantomime's emphasis on direct engagement with the audience. In much the same way as Beggar's Opera reminds the audience that it is a fiction, the constant slipping in and out of character, the bit where some cute kids are dragged on-stage and the dispensation of sweeties from the stage make pantomime more like a game, or the Mass.

Perhaps the most disappointing consequence of this conservatism is that the potential of pantomime as a purposeful theatre has been neglected. Its carnivalesque spirit allows it to poke fun at authority: the Pavilion pantomime has the occasional shot at the council and gets very close to sectarian humour (although to laugh at the rivalries rather than to harvest the rich fields of nasty bigotry), and the Tron, in the Masson years, had a habit of mocking the other, rival shows. Yet even in the most parochial pantomimes, there's no attempt to give the details a satirical bite.

The conservatism of the form, then, is mirrored by a social conservatism. If political theatre is coming into its own again, the pantomime isn't joining in. It's a good example, perhaps, of how popularity can limit ambition: having discovered a good product, theatres seem unwilling to risk extending the form or content.

This isn't absolute - McKnight's increasing presence on the festive scene brings the sensibilities of his Random Accomplice work, and the Lyceum, The Citizens, The Traverse, and the National Theatre of Scotland (with their Christmas Carol) all present plays that are more closely connected to their usual output. However, these might be examples of how a niche can be found in the Christmas market.

He's enjoying imself

Given its long history - it goes back to classical times, through medieval mummers' plays and to the music hall - its surprising how little influence pantomime has beyond its own month. There are few examples of pantomime influencing theatre, even though its techniques aren't especially divorced from contemporary practice and it achieves audiences that most most companies envy.

A few exceptions aside - Ali Maloney did a grotesque pantomime last year at Arches Live, and I, Tommy slid from political satire into broad comedic antics pretty quickly - pantomime feeds the theatre neither with audiences nor ideas. It seems to exist in a splendid isolation, preserving the traces of music hall (Johnny Mac at the Pavilion has the genuine aura of a 1930s comedian, catch-phrase like a twitch at the end of every sentence), 1970s humour and the belief in entertainment that can be for all the family (with the odd "one for the dads").

Perhaps most importantly, pantomime is the one place where the Hegelian model of synthesis is played out in its most immediate format.

Oh, no, it isn't.

Oh yes, it is.

Oh no, it isn't.

Johnny Bites at Random, Making Love Hurt all the Sweeter

Given that their famous trilogy exploring Little Johnny's emotional and romantic adventures - culminating in the National Theatre of Scotland co-production of their Big Gay Wedding - was originally supported by Glasgay, it's no surprise that Random Accomplice have collaborated with the festival for their latest new direction. Love Hurts - a monologue that follows the dark paths of sexual awakening - is the second in RA's Random Bites series. 

"Random Bites is a relatively new umbrella for the company," explains Johhny McKnight, one of the duo that make up RA.  "Julie Brown (my better half - aka the brains of Random Accomplice!) and myself had a recent meeting where we talked about the importance of us, as artists, being able to take risks and develop ourselves further. And sometimes that means without the emotional crutch or barrier depending on what day it is, of each other." 

Rather than challenge themselves to make the same scale of shows that made their name - McKnight is the notorious director of The Macrobert pantomime, which has rewritten the rules of Scottish Christmas entertainment, while their recent successes Small Town and Promises Promises were staged in the Ton's main theatre - they evolved Random Bites as "small-scale, easy to manage and tour, projects that cost relatively little to make but give us vehicles to try out new ideas or formats."

"We did our National Theatre of Scotland Five Minute Theatre under this banner and now Love Hurts is the first true pilot exercise," McKnight continues. "It's a new project that I have written and directed on a very minuscule budget but that all the artists are doing for either the love of or because I've twisted their arm."

Random Bites is very much in the mood of the times - as is Love Hurts, with its brooding main character and sense of anxiety. In a time when the arts are under threat, sensible companies are looking for new ways to experiment, without undermining their reputation or possible funding. After a decade of growth, RA are still seeking out new possibilities.

"I think for me as a writer its probably a new step for me. Its much more a straight forward play (which I don't think I've ever really done before Smalltown) but, hopefully, still contains a sense of storytelling, comedy and excitement for an audience," he continues. "It's still, like most RA shows, got a real relationship with its audience and - hopefully - taps into those feelings of identification of the thirty- something audience. Only perhaps this show has a more melodramatic climax."

"I do feel as we start to get older at RA, there is an even more urgent and important need to throw ourselves curve balls, test out other forms, work with new artists, create work for different audiences. I think if we don't then we become stale and, even more importantly, uninteresting."

This willingness to experiment has always been a feature of RA: whether it is the zombie horror comedy of Smalltown, the serious moral meditation of The Promise or the melancholy haunted hilarity of the Big Gay Trilogy, McKnight and Brown have always demonstrated their roots in the Young Glasgow Live Art Tradition - both are graduates from the Conservatoire Formerly Known as the RSAMD - need not mean inaccessibility. It might signal a new format, but Love Hurts follows in the open, witty and searching tradition that they have developed over the past ten years.