A PLAY about an unconventional relationship leads Mayfesto, the Tron Theatre’s “mini-festival of edgy and provocative new work”.
The Mistress Contract is based on the memoir of a real-life couple in which a woman agreed to provide “mistress services” to a man in return for an income and home.
Acclaimed TV and film writer Abi Morgan adapted the best-selling book into the play, which is currently making its Scottish debut under the direction of Eve Nicol, one of Mayfesto’s two resident artists. After its run, Nicol will work with fellow Mayfesto resident Andy Edwards to deliver Arketype, a work-in-progress retelling of Noah’s ark set in a near-future Scotland.
“Andy’s work from over the years often has a strange, almost magical-realist take on things,” says artistic producer Michael John O’Neill.
“Eve and Andy will work together with a team of actors over about two weeks to explore the story, this embryonic text. Then they’ll take a big risk and share some of what they’ve done at two nights towards the end of the festival.”
O’Neill programmes Mayfesto alongside festival founder Andy Arnold, artistic director of the Tron. The pair settled on the theme of “escapology” as many of the productions explore ideas of restraint and relief.
The idea is well illustrated in The Mistress Contract’s arrangement between the two characters, known only as She and He, says O’Neill.
“They had set out the rules about how their relationship would work in a contract,” he says. “It was an attempt to restructure the constraints of family life on women in particular, and find a new way to find out what a relationship could be.
“Rather than getting married they were like, we’re going to put this contract together – it’s going to constrain us and free us at the same time. Their relationship lasted decades.”
Nicol pitched the play to O’Neill and Arnold as having renewed resonance in the wake of #MeToo.
Highlights from other artists based in Scotland include Johnny McKnight’s Glasgow re-imagining of Dario Fo’s 1970s farce Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay! – here retitled as Low Pay? Don’t Pay!
Gav Prentice, known to music fans via indie band Over The Wall, makes his theatrical debut in In Turn The Night, while Edinburgh-based multi-talent Apphia Campbell brings back her 2017 Fringe First-winning show Woke, about a young woman’s journey through the 20th-century African-American experience using song. In addition, there are visits from England’s Wildcard with their gig theatre show Electrolyte, Sligo’s Blue Raincoat who present an adult, “visually sumptuous” take on Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland and the return of Status, Chris Thorpe’s Fringe First-winning show about a man trying to escape from his nationality.
“I saw Status at its first preview in Summerhall last August and it didn’t leave my mind for the rest of the month,” says O’Neill. “Everything afterwards felt like it was sitting in its shadow. And now it’s in Glasgow for only two nights.”
He adds: “We can’t ever exist in the Netflix, on-demand, model. Everything in Mayfesto is blink and then it’s gone. That’s what can make me tear my hair out about working in theatre but it’s also what I love about it.”
Until June 1, Tron Theatre, Glasgow, various times and prices. Tel: 0141 552 4267.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here