Tron Theatre Company is delighted to be presenting the Scottish premiere of Escaped Alone, Caryl Churchill’s award-winning play, described as ‘magnificent’ and ‘revolutionary’ when it premiered on the Royal Court in 2016. Directed by Tron Theatre’s Associate Director Joanna Bowman, Escaped Alone, documenting a day of pleasant chat punctured by disaster and revelations, stays each socially and politically impactful in 2024 as international temperatures hit report highs and wildfires, floods, drought and warfare rampage internationally.
On the floor Escaped Alone appears like a really civilised and pretty mundane backyard get-together between three girls. That is till the three previous buddies are joined by their neighbour Mrs Jarrett, performed by the unimaginable Blythe Duff, and their chat alternates between idle gossip and a set of monologues: three of the ladies reveal crippling anxieties and darkish secrets and techniques, with Mrs Jarrett narrating a contradictory and infrequently absurd—however all-too-plausible—set of apocalypses.
With Churchill’s textual content stating that the characters are all ‘at least 70’, Joanna has assembled a powerful feminine solid of older Scottish actors recognized for his or her widespread stage and tv work. Blythe Duff (James IV – Queen of the Fight (National Theatre of Scotland); Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Palace Theatre, West End); Locker Room Talk, Grain within the Blood (Traverse Theatre)) takes on the position of Mrs Jarrett and might be joined by Anne Kidd (Tennessee Rose (Pleasance Theatre);Tay Bridge (Dundee Rep); A Respectable Widow Takes to Vulgarity (Òran Mór)) as Lena, Irene Macdougall (A Christmas Carol, The Children, The Steamie, Don Quixote, All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, August: Osage County, The Cheviot and the Stag and the Black, Black Oil (Dundee Rep)) as Vi and Joanna Tope (Tree of Knowledge (Traverse); Locker Room Talk (Traverse Theatre/Latitude Festival); Still Game Live: Bon Voyage! (SSE Hydro) as Sally.
With Escaped Alone giving voice to the often-overlooked older lady, the good friend group’s worldview, stoicism and life-experience provide reassurance and a way of resilience whereas throughout them implodes. Complex, stark and typically darkly humorous, Escaped Alone is a piece of quiet energy and horrible, horrible rage.
Director Joanna Bowman says of the piece:
‘For me, Caryl Churchill’s Escaped Alone is among the most intriguing and singular performs of the twenty-first century. A swirl of disaster and chaos, the play pushes on the boundaries of what theatre can do, and the photographs we are able to put onstage. Highly theatrical and filled with real shock, her performs are a present to a theatre director: to spend time inside Churchill’s sensible creativeness and along with her exact and compelling phrases is a pleasure. The play speaks to 2024 in the best way that solely reside, in-the-room theatre can, with politically important and fiercely humorous occasions all through. Her performs are hardly ever carried out in Scotland, and I’m thrilled to be bringing Escaped Alone to the Tron’s viewers with a top-drawer solid of actors.’
Caryl Churchill has a status as ‘Britain’s best residing playwright’ and Escaped Alone retains the leftist and feminist politics of Churchill’s greatest recognized works Top Girls and Cloud 9.
Jo Bowman is the Tron Theatre’s Associate Director 2022-24, and a quickly rising star within the Scottish directing scene. In this Associate Director position she most not too long ago directed Ross Willi’s play Wolfie for the Changing House studio in May 2023 to blistering opinions. She likes theatre that’s messy and loud.
Escaped Alone was initially produced on the Royal Court in London in 2016 to robust opinions and in addition went on to win Best Play on the Writers’ Guild Awards 2017.
22 FEBRUARY – 09 MARCH 2024 @ TRON THEATRE
13 – 16 MARCH 2024 @ TRAVERSE THEATRE
Image: Mihaela Bodlovic/Jamhot)
