Absurdist play will take audience to dark places

A dark absurdist play is coming to Glasgow and Edinburgh next month.

Tron Theatre Company in association with National Theatre of Scotland presents Ma, Pa and the Little Mouths, by Martin McCormack.

This piece piece of new writing opens at the Tron Theatre, Glasgow as part of Mayfesto, before it transfers to the Traverse Theatre.

Set in the shadow of a huge refinery and surrounded by decay and rot, Ma and Pa live an almost completely reclusive life – rarely venturing out of their high-rise flat.

Their exchanges and stories follow patterns of conversation practised over their many years together, often repetitious and sometimes with an undercurrent of hostility, veiled threats, resentment and fear – towards each other and towards the outside world.

What has happened to them, who are the Little Mouths that hungrily consume egg custard that ‘sweetens the breath’?

And who is Neil – a woman they give refuge to after Pa finds her hiding under a car in the street. Was she out jogging or being pursued? As Ma and Pa try to find out – their questioning and assumptions take a more dubious tack and their desire to keep Neil ‘safe’ in their bizarre world make them as dangerous as her pursuers.

With Karen Dunbar as Ma, Gerry Mulgrew as Pa and Nalini Chetty as Neil, Ma, Pa and the Little Mouths is a bizarrely surreal and sinister reflection on lives and outlooks that have turned inward, as well as on attitudes towards immigration, cultural integration and the civilian casualties of political and social upheaval.

Martin’s previous work includes Squash (Winner, best new play CATS 2015), The Day the Pope Emptied Croy (Traverse/Play Pie Pint), Flo (Play Pie Pint/Lemon Tree), Potterrow (Best Short Play 2015) and News Just In (Random Accomplice).

The production has a running time of approximately 80 mins (no interval).

It will be at the Tron Theatre, 63 Trongate, Glasgow, from 3-12 May, at 7.45pm (plus a matinee on 12 May, at 2.30pm). Tickets are £9-£17 from 0141 552 4267 or HERE.

It will then run at the Traverse Theatre, 10 Cambridge Street, Edinburgh, from 16-19 May, starting at 7.30pm. Tickets are £17/£14/£12.50/£9, from 0131 228 1404 or HERE.