Butterfly

TRAMWAY, GLASGOW

A FAMILY party can be as good as a piece of theatre, so this is an intriguing experiment: can a family party be turned into a piece of theatre?

Award-winning company Quarantine are masters of "real-life" theatre, having staged shows with asylum seekers (EatEat) and working-class men (White Trash). In this show they have three generations of a Glasgow family: Robert and Patricia Kelly, their daughters Heather Gray and Gail Waterman, and Gail’s three children, Lauren (11) and twins Ellen and Blair (9).

Tramway 1 has been transformed into the function suite at the local, with a tiled dancefloor, trestle tables and a spread laid out for the interval.

The bar is open and the juke-box is playing the Beach Boys. From time to time, we’re all invited up to dance. So the barrier between audience and performers is levelled. But more importantly, so is the distance between performers and material. When they speak, the family are telling their own stories.

Butterfly, under Richard Gregory’s earnest and respectful direction, is an elegiac comment on how generations revolve and succeed one another.