30 Jun 2025
Tron Theatre is delighted today to announce the cast for our Autumn season co-production, Black Hole Sign, as well as new additions to the visiting company programme, as part of our ongoing commitment to championing bold and contemporary work; and presenting high quality and ambitious theatre that represents and reflects the diversity of the world, both locally and globally.
In September, we will co-produce with Traverse Theatre Company, Uma Nada-Rajah’s Black Hole Sign (19 Sept – 4 Oct 2025, Press Performance: Tue 23 Sept, 7.30pm) in association with National Theatre of Scotland. Directed by Gareth Nicholls and set in a crumbling and understaffed A&E department in Glasgow, Black Hole Sign takes a razor-sharp scalpel to the absurdities, tragedies and hilarity within one of our most beloved but besieged institutions, the NHS.
A stellar six-strong cast will bring this dark comedy to the stage – with Helen Logan (To Save the Sea (Sleeping Warrior), Who Pays the Piper (A Play, A Pie & A Pint)) taking the role of Crea, the beleaguered Senior Charge Nurse in charge of a busy Acute Medical Receiving Unit. Dani Heron (Radiant Vermin (Tron Theatre), 90 Days (Traverse Theatre)) will play Ani – a competent and caring staff nurse desperate for enough time to actually ‘care’ for the patients, Amelia Isaac Jones (The Gold (BBC) and Macbeth (RSC)) is Lina, a gum-chewing, chaotic, inexperienced student nurse and Martin Docherty (Moorcroft (Tron Theatre), Decky Does A Bronco (Grid Iron)) will play Billy, the long-serving porter who’s seen and heard it all. Under their care on this 21st December nightshift are octogenarian Tersia, trapped in a disco-fuelled fever dream, played by Ann Louise Ross (Peter Gynt (National Theatre/EIF), Grand Old Opera House Hotel (Traverse Theatre), Cyprus Avenue (Tron Theatre)) and palliative care patient Iain Hopper, played by Beruce Khan (Hansel and Gretel, The Winter’s Tale (The Globe)).
Gareth Nicholls says of the company he has assembled for Black Hole Sign:
‘I’m absolutely delighted to be working with this cracking ensemble of actors who will each bring a vast amount of talent, creativity, and care to Uma’s hugely ambitious and important play. Alongside the creative team I can’t wait to collaborate with such a brilliant group of actors on what is shaping up to be a truly moving, funny and powerful new play.’
Designed by Anna Orton, with lighting by Lizzie Powell and sound design by MJ McCarthy, Black Hole Sign was originally commissioned by the Traverse Theatre and will transfer there for a two-week run (8-17 October) following its world premiere and run on the Tron’s main stage.
Also transferring in the Autumn season is our hit summer production Man’s Best Friend by Douglas Maxwell, directed by Jemima Levick, which will embark on a national tour, visiting cities and towns across Scotland. Jordan Young will take dog-walker Ronnie’s hilariously heart-warming story to Ayr Gaiety (3 Sept), Theatre Royal Dumfries (5 Sept), Eden Court, Inverness (9 Sept), Dundee Rep (12 & 13 Sept), Lemon Tree, Aberdeen (16 & 17 Sept), Beacon Arts Centre, Greenock (19 Sept), Adam Smith Theatre, Kirkcaldy (20 Sept) and Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh (25-27 Sept).
And of course we round out the year with our pantomime, Gallus in Weegieland (22 Nov 2025 – 4 Jan 2026, Press Performance: Tues 25 Nov, 7pm). The 2017 script will be given a refresh by writer Johnny McKnight and under the direction of Sally Reid, will be a wild adventure down a mysterious pothole to a land full of strange-talking creatures and a maniacal power-hungry Queen, packed full of all the usual Tron panto trademark irreverence.
A small but impactful visiting programme will present Stellar Quines and Royal Lyceum Theatre’s critically acclaimed production, Through the Mud (16-18 Oct), Apphia Campbell’s story of two generations of women activists in the struggle for black liberation in America, alongside a new show from Glasgow-based dance-theatre company Shotput, whose production of Arlington (22-25 Oct) by Enda Walsh, is a dark fable of surveillance, connection, and the power of imagination. The Gilded Balloon return with more top-tier comedy and the hottest new talent in the form of their Big Comedy Roadshow (12 October) with headline act, Felicity Ward, star of The Office (Australia) and seen on Live at the Apollo, Mock the Week and Wakefield.
Underpinning the work in our main theatre, will be a continuation of our Tron Creative and Community Engagement programmes, with opportunities for Scotland’s thriving freelance community of artists and creatives to engage with us through our Tron Lab call-out and scratch night Outside Eyes (2 Sept); and a series of exciting projects for young people – a refreshed Tron Ambassadors programme for young people aged 14-18 years and another Tron Take-Over linked to Gallus in Weegieland, Tronversations for and with our local communities and a full programme of workshops and insight sessions related to Black Hole Sign for schools to get involved with.
The autumn visiting programme will go on-sale on Monday 30 June at 11am with all performances available to book online (www.tron.co.uk), by telephone on 0141 552 4267 or in person at our Box Office.
Picture by Laurence Winram.
