Tron Theatre Launches 35th Anniversary Season

Following a busy and hugely successful autumn season, where our co-production of Rob Drummond's Grain in the Blood with the Traverse and all our Changing House shows enjoyed sold-out runs, we're delighted to announce our programme for the Spring/Summer 2017, which marks the Tron's 35th anniversary year.

Gareth Nicholls will direct Yasmina Reza's Tony and Olivier Award-winning play God of Carnage (9-25 March, Press Night: Friday 10 March, 7.45pm), a brutally entertaining and stingingly comic character study of middle class pretense and savage parental instinct, for Tron Theatre Company's spring production.

We'll also present Anthony Neilson's The Lying Kind (6-22 July, Press Night: Friday 7 July, 7.45pm) as the production that brings the Spring/Summer season to a close. Multiple misunderstandings, a stray Chihuahua and an apparently transvestite vicar contribute to the escalating mayhem in a hilarious, pitch-black farce where two police officers are sent to deliver terrible news to an old couple on Christmas Eve.

In the main auditorium, we once again offer up a diverse programme of work. Celtic Connections returns (20 Jan - 4 Feb) with the festival's trademark eclectic mix of the best in folk and world music. Tamasha in association with The Belgrade Theatre return after the success of My Name Is and Blood with Made in India (8-11 Feb, 7.45pm), a thrilling new play about motherhood and blood ties. Galloping into the Tron in February after its Traverse run is Black Beauty (14 Feb, 2pm & 7pm), Andy Manley, Andy Cannon and Shona Reppe's vibrant retelling of the children's classic book and TV series. Fair Pley, who produced Connolly during our 2016 Mayfesto season return with David Hayman in The Cause of Thunder (16-18 Feb, 7.45pm), Chris Dolan's new play about a man confronting retirement and the onset of old age and questioning whether his life's work is done.

Fresh from the Edinburgh Fringe we welcome Adura Onashile with her Fringe First-winning show Expensive Shit (30 Mar - 1 Apr, 7.45pm). We'll co-produce once again with David Leddy this season, this time on his extraordinary new one-man show, Coriolanus Vanishes (14-22 April, Press Night: Tues 18 April, 7.45pm) a contemporary tragedy that explores how childhood memories can besiege adult relationships, and Blue Raincoat Theatre Company, who have a long history of performing at the Tron Theatre present Shackleton (14-17 Jun, 7.45pm), the Scottish and UK premiere of their 'striking feat of composition' and 'deeply moving' piece about Endurance on the Antarctic's icy Weddell Sea.

Our Changing House programme opens with Testroom Scratch Night (30 Jan, 7pm) as part of manipulate Visual Theatre Festival, where five scratch pieces will be given their first public airing. We're excited to welcome The Clod Ensemble with Fuel and their production The Red Chair (3 & 4 March, 8pm). Told in rich, saucy Scots dialect with physical verve, it lies somewhere between a Grimm Tale, an absurdist ghost story and a parent's guide on how not to bring up their children!

ZENDEH performed Transit (9-11 March, 8pm) here in the autumn as a work-in-progress and we now welcome them back with the full production. Poignant, moving and darkly funny, Fifth Word present All the Little Lights (23-25 March, 8pm) about two women trying to salvage a friendship in the face of ghosts from the past. Jenna Watt's multi-award-winning Faslane (29 March - 1 April, 8pm) explores what happens when the personal and political collide; and Proto-type Theater's A Machine They're Secretly Building (13-15 April, 8pm) charts a course from the Top Secret secrets of WWI intelligence through to 9/11, Edward Snowdon and the erosion of privacy. Paul Brotherston will direct the Jules Verne classic adventure, Journey to the Centre of the Earth (20-22 April, 8pm) for the University of the West of Scotland.

We continue to invest in our Tron Creative programme, with the goal of fostering wide-reaching conversations between artist, community and audience. Progressive Playwright (21 Feb, 21 Mar, 11 Apr & 30 May, 8pm) returns along with the Award (17 Jan, 7.45pm) and Outside Eyes (26 Apr, 7 Jun, 7.45pm), the scratch platform where we 'uncovered' Greater Belfast and How to Sing It is also programmed again. In the Vic Bar, we've got Makar Sunday Jazz, The Seven Song Club, Poetry Slams, the Keith Wright Literary Talks and a new Roots of Music session celebrating all things country.

Andy Arnold said of his Spring/Summer programme:
'The Tron celebrates its 35th year in 2017 and I can't think of a more fitting way to do this than by presenting some of the highest quality drama from companies and individuals whose work we respect greatly. We've also picked some brilliantly funny and accessible pieces to showcase Tron Theatre Company and which we hope will engage and entertain audiences old and new. In these uncertain times, we must support and celebrate theatre and our new programme provides so many opportunities to do this. Please do come and celebrate with us!"