Autumn Highlights: The Arches Vs The Tron

By Andrew Eaton

THE ARCHES or the Tron? At least one theatre company who made a big splash at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe is currently facing that dilemma, since both venues have offered to stage their award- winning show in Glasgow.

It’ll be a tough decision, for audiences as well as companies. For years now, the Arches has been the venue of choice for experimental, up-and-coming theatre-makers. It’s a cool, edgy venue with a liberal, open-minded audience, and its two flagship festivals, Arches Live! and the Arches Theatre Festival, are – outside the Fringe at least – the places in Scotland to try out new ideas and get noticed.

The success of the Arches is the legacy of Andy Arnold, who founded the venue almost two decades ago and remained its director until the beginning of this year when – much to everyone’ s surprise – he became artistic director of the Tron. Arnold has quickly made his mark. This autumn’s lively programme ranges from Tam Dean Burn’s “digital agit-punk” night, The Manifesto Politikal Kabaret, to two children’s Christmas shows, Mother Bruce and Little Rudi, and from Vox Motus’s Edinburgh Fringe hit Slick to two shows directed by Arnold himself – Six Acts of Love by Dublin-based writer Ioanna Anderson and Suddenly Last Summer by Tennessee Williams (part of a city-wide Williams festival – see page 5). “I want to keep pushing the envelope, and exploring new possibilities,” he says, “and in my book there’s no better place to be doing that than the Tron, right here and now.”

So where does that leave the Arches? In the hands of youthful new director Jackie Wylie (inset, by Arnold). Wylie’s strong autumn programme also mixes edgy and accessible. There’s a packed Arches Live! programme, a show about the life of Tennessee Williams starring Pauline Goldsmith and Grant Smeaton, a children’s Christmas show, The Snow Queen, directed by Al Seed, and lots more.

Both Wylie and Arnold will probably deny they are competing, but they will surely be keeping a close eye on each other. That will raise everyone’s game, which is good for us all, surely.

Visit www.thearches.co.uk and www.tron.co.uk

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