Tron Theatre Company
29th October – 8th November 2014

Writer – John Byrne
Director – Andy Arnold
Assistant Director – Nicola Todd
Designer – Carys Hobbs
Stage Manager – Laura Walshe
Photography by John Johnston

Fresh from artistic triumph in Glasgow, two painters swagger down to war-torn London’s Bohemia to take the art world by storm. After forcing galleries and critics to take notice of their brilliant post-modernist paintings, they briefly become revered as the Gilbert and George of London’s art establishment. However, these two Roberts–partners and lovers–are also outrageous and flamboyant hedonists who are eventually shunned by the Capital’s chattering classes; and once out of control, there is only one way to go.

John Byrne idolised these two brilliant painters in his own Glasgow art school days and has written a fast moving play crackling with fine art and foul profanities. First performed at the Royal Court Theatre in 1992 with a cast of six, Byrne has created a new two-handed version for the Tron’s Changing House.

Original artwork by John Byrne.

Andy Arnold’s tiny gem of a studio production pulls no punches in portraying the rise and fall of this talented pair; its conclusion is memorably bleak, a searing image of self-destructiveness carried to its very limit. – The Scotsman, ****