Andy Arnold

Mister Merlin

The Weegie-centric Tron panto continues to entertain despite uncertain future

7 Dec 2011

Renowned for their particularly weegie take on a festive tale, the Tron may sadly be unable to continue their affordable Christmas shows due to the loss of their corporate sponsor. Unless they find another, the theatre will need to raise £20,000 a year…

Mayfesto to focus on Celtic nations for 2011

Playwrights David Harrower and David Ireland and director Leann O'Kasi share their views

20 Apr 2011

Last year’s inaugural Mayfesto – a theatre festival that aims to showcase politically-themed work at Glasgow’s Tron – took the problems of the Middle East as its overarching theme. This year, Artistic Director Andy Arnold has opted for a more local…

Mayfesto 2011 programme revealed

Tron artistic director Andy Arnold discusses the politically-edged theatre festival

7 Mar 2011

To say The Tron’s artistic director Andy Arnold has big hopes for this year’s Mayfesto would be an understatement. Launched in 2010, Arnold’s plan was to bring Glasgow a new, socially and politically engaged theatre festival – and that’s just what he…

Charles Dyer’s 1966 play Staircase

Mutual and self-loathing between two ageing gay lovers

7 Mar 2011

There are a number of very good reasons for resurrecting Charles Dyer’s 1966 play, foremost of which is his control of language. Under Dyer’s pen, the plain tics and disappointments of everyday speech become poetic and lovely. To an extent this is very…

Tron Theatre summer production sets sail for Valhalla!

23 Jun 2010

Theatre-goers beware: reality will leave the building for artistic director Andy Arnold’s latest summer production. Following on from last year’s darkly comic Cooking With Elvis, Valhalla! looks similarly offbeat, replete as it is with magic swans…

How Tron Theatre's Mayfesto is more politics than nostalgia

29 Apr 2010

Andy Arnold was on the bus when it came to him. That clever use of the letter ‘o’ could buy him two things at once: remind people of a late lamented Glasgow theatre festival, and inject a political edge to the new event he had planned. And so, Mayfesto…

Tron to stage Martin Crimp's The City

10 Feb 2010

It is in the nature of cities, capital cities in particular, to juxtapose the trivial with the weighty. As city dwellers we are at once individuals with worries about bus tickets and groceries, and also part of something much bigger – the city itself…

Entries sought for Tron Open.Stage playwriting contest

30 Oct 2009

A new playwriting competition has been launched allowing Scots, or those living in Scotland, the chance to have their theatre show produced at the Tron Theatre. As part of a new initiative applicants can apply online by providing a synopsis of their…

That Face

Andy Arnold revives this tale of dark family life

15 Oct 2009

Polly Stenham’s dark, unflattering portrait of a deeply dysfunctional upper middle class family made London theatre goers sit up and take notice on its premiere at the Royal Court in 2007. Andy Arnold’s decision to revive the piece, transferring the…

Andy Arnold directs Lee Hall's play Cooking With Elvis

23 Jul 2009

The American comedienne Carol Burnett once observed that ‘comedy is tragedy plus time’. Never has this axiom been more aptly applied than in the case of Lee Hall’s Cooking With Elvis. The subject matter, which includes child abuse, alcoholism, eating…

Cooking with Elvis

9 Jul 2009

Lee Hall might be best known for his Oscar-nominated screenplay for Billy Elliot, but long before Jamie Bell’s dancing feet captured the public imagination, Hall scored a hit with the acclaimed comedy Cooking with Elvis. First performed in Newcastle’s…

Tron Stripped: Bliss + Mud

30 Apr 2009

Just a year into his tenure as artistic director, Andy Arnold is already transforming the Tron into one of Scotland’s most innovative producing theatres. His latest outing, Tron Stripped, offers up a double bill of North American plays: Bliss, by…

Defender of the Faith

5 Feb 2009

TROUBLES DRAMA The power sharing deal struck by the DUP and Sinn Fein in 2007 may have suggested to the world that the Troubles in Northern Ireland were finally over but the impact of decades of violence has permanently left its mark on the public…

The Hot 100 2008

11 Dec 2008

It’s been a helluva year. 2008 has been a time of significant global change, socially, politically and culturally, with Scotland no exception. So here, for your delectation, is The List’s pick of the 100 people, places and things that rocked our world…

Suddenly Last Summer

16 Oct 2008

Andy Arnold directs this revival of Tennessee Williams’ shocking one-act play about the terrifying Violet Venable’s attempts to have her niece lobotomised in order to prevent her revealing the truth about her son Sebastian’s sexual proclivities. The…

Six Acts of Love

18 Sep 2008

NEW PLAY The Scottish Government’s Homecoming programme is not until next year, but Ioanna Anderson is getting in early. At the age of 38, she’s planning to move back to her native Edinburgh after spending the best part of 20 years in Ireland, where…

The Drawer Boy - An interview with Andy Arnold

24 Apr 2008

The Tron seems to be undergoing its own version of a glorious 100 days at the moment as its newly appointed artistic director, Andy Arnold, hits the ground, not so much running as sprinting. The former artistic director of The Arches avows that a very…

Translations

17 Jan 2008

MODERN CLASSIC Citizens’ Theatre, Glasgow, Wed 23 Jan–Sat 2 Feb The nearest thing we have to Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha county on our side of the Atlantic is another fictional place with an anchor in reality, Brian Friel’s Ballybeg, a made-up small…

Arches Festival of Theatre

Arching Ambition

27 Mar 2007

From the very beginning Andy Arnold’s Arches has actively encouraged young theatre artists, providing a space for experiment and creativity that’s unparalleled in Scotland. But the innovators have come from well beyond our borders, with UK-wide and…

Hughie

The Arches, Glasgow, until Sat 17 Mar

13 Mar 2007

NEGLECTED CLASSIC An ageing New York gambler lords it over a luckless hotel night clerk, spinning unlikely tails of his continuing prowess in gambling and womanising. Both the gambler and the hotel have seen better days. Such is the scene in this…

Hughie

Arches, Glasgow, Fri 2-Sat 17 Mar

27 Feb 2007

SCOTTISH PREMIERE With his triple bill of Tennessee Williams shorts and Pinter’s Moonlight to his credit over the last couple of years, Andy Arnold has more than demonstrated his credentials with marginal texts by acclaimed authors. The latest such…

CATS Awards

3 Jan 2007

AWARDS ROUND UP We’re about at half term for the awards season, with the CATS Awards occurring in early June this year. So far, the chatter among the critics has covered a great variety of work, from grand scale projects to more modest pieces. It’s a…

Spend a Penny

The Arches, Glasgow, until Sat 7 Oct

2 Oct 2006

SITE SPECIFIC I suppose toilets, perhaps particularly public ones, are places where we must confront the truth of the body. A good place then, to set theatre, since this too, at its best, confronts uncomfortable truths. Andy Arnold’s deft, witty…

History of the Arches

Underground resistance

18 Sep 2006

The look on Andy Arnold’s face suggests he’s more than a little bit gob-smacked to be sitting in his dapper office, in what could only be described as the cockpit of The Arches, talking about how an idea sparked over 15 years ago has led to an arts…

Rage

Keep away from my theatre - or else

18 Sep 2006

King’s Theatre, Queen’s Hall, Theatre Royal, Civic Theatre, Citizen’s Theatre, National Theatre, Royal Lyceum... They all sound a bit archaic, part of the Empire, like old English pub names. Why do theatres puff themselves up so much? Far more people…