La Musica is one of four pieces being performed at the Tron this week to showcase the talents of Acting and Directing students in their final year at Queen Margaret University.

This piece, written by Marguerite Duras, follows meetings of a couple who have long since split up. Although they might not like to admit it they don’t seem to be able to forget each other, a love that turned to hate and obsession. At first it is not clear at what stages we are seeing the couples, is it that start of their relationship, a turning point or an end? As the play continues we learn about the course of their relationship and its final tragic moments.

The set is simple, chairs and a table only, as the piece is all focussed a couple simply talking it could, in the wrong hands, be un-engaging and static, but director Mauro Matos e Silva has achieved the opposite. The piece watches like a slow dance which is uncomfortable for it’s participants, with the characters moving around each other, swapping places slowly and, whenever the conversation becomes too reminiscent and loving, bursting apart from each other, only to slowly come together once more.

Throughout the piece there are two versions of the couple onstage, each from a different time in the relationship, while the tension between the couple placed downstage is our main focus, the subtle movements, expressions and body language of their other selves upstage almost subliminally tells the audience what is being felt and what is not being said between the two.

The actors are all very good at creating the awkwardness present in these situations. Their characters, in the earlier stages of the relationship seem filled with an inner turmoil, a constant simmering of anger love and emotion which they don’t allow themselves to show, presenting to each other a cooler, emotionless façade, only finally being honest with each other when really it is too late.

Overall this is piece is an unusual love story, which feels timeless in this telling. A moving piece, this platform performance, along with the other three showing in Europe Discovered provides an excellent opportunity to see some of the newest directing and acting talent in Scotland.

6th, 8th, 10th,14th and 16th March
Tron Theatre, Glasgow