The advent of the premiere of David Greig ' s Pyrenees at The Tron Theatre, Glasgow a co-production between the Tron Theatre Company and Paines Plough has been surrounded, somewhat understandably, by an air of excited anticipation. Not only can it be viewed as collaboration between highly regarded talents but it also marks a collaboration between three of the main players in the inaugural National Theatre of Scotland. Vicky Featherstone outgoing director of Paines Plough and incoming Artistic Director of the National Theatre, David Greig as Dramaturg and Neil Murray, director of the Tron who will be executive director.
With Pyrenees this union does not fail to disappoint in a play that manages to both draw on Scotland ' s prior theatrical achievement and embrace a hopeful future, with Greig revisiting two of his former protagonists formerly seen in 1999's The Cosmonaut ' s Last Message to the Woman he Once Loved in Former Soviet Union.
An unconscious man has been found lying in the snow with no recollection of who he is or how he came to be there. A young woman from the consulate has been sent to confirm if he is in dee d the responsibility of the British government and to attempt to piece together his identity . An immediate ease and familiarity develops into a strange sexual tension between the older man and young woman, both seeming somehow relieved to start with a clean fresh slate. The possibility opened up by this encounter is rapidly shattered, when another guest at the hotel claiming to be his wife - leaves him to make the choice between the responsibility of a speckled past or running away to an, as yet, unblemished future.
Greig's script is both funny and touching, rapidly moving from the comic to moments of moving tenderness, as he examines the damaging effects of experience, renewal, love & forgiveness. Astute direction and strong performances bring out these comic moments and makes theses shifts seem effortless and natural. The sexual tension between The Man and Anna, the young woman from the consulate, gains pace throughout the first act. There is an evident bond which, although we think is sexual, becomes both intriguing and somewhat discomforting as the play progresses and we wonder what secrets the man's forgotten past may hold.
The action unfolds on the terrace of a mountainside hotel, the passage of time marked by the dimming lights and meals that the hotel proprietor prepares for. On Neil Warmington‘s, simple yet evocative set which is at once both familiar and slightly surreal, the actors skill and dialogue give us a real scene of place and environment, as you would expect from a play with such a title. Yet the play seems more far reaching than this static environment would suggest and we are left with a feeling of vast worldliness. Featherstone adds nice touches like playing the kind of cheesy tunes that you would expect to hear on a hotel terrace, from on stage speakers both pre show and during the interval, but overall the production is both simple and moving.
