Neil Cooper

The pantomime fairy-dust may have barely been swept away, but already Scotland's theatres are gearing up for a busy year ahead. There is much anticipation for the Gorbals theatre's forthcoming revival of John Byrne's play, The Slab Boys (February 12-March 7). This main-stage production will be directed by David Hayman, who oversaw the original production of Byrne's tragi-comedy set in a Paisley carpet factory when it first appeared at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh in the late 1970s. By that time Hayman had already blazed a trail as an actor at the Citiz, and The Slab Boys continues a relationship re-established when he played the title role in King Lear.

There's a double whammy from playwright Douglas Maxwell this year, with two plays making their way around the country. The first, at the Citz, is Fever Dream: Southside (April 23-May 9), a surreal comic thriller set in Govanhill during a heatwave.

The second, a collaboration with the National Theatre of Scotland as part of the company's Belong season, is Yer Granny, which opens its tour at the Beacon Arts Centre, Greenock (May 19-21) , and looks set to be a riotous yarn taken from an Argentinian original and set in a closed down Glasgow chip shop where a diabolical matriarch eats her family out of house and home.

Also being co-presented by the NTS is Rites (Tron Theatre, Glasgow, May 5-9; Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, May 26-30) in which director Cora Bisset and her Pachamama company look at the issues around female genital mutilation. Bisset previously scored a hit with her production of Roadkill, a collaboration with writer Stef Smith which tackled international sex trafficking in a troubling but thrilling production.

NTS artistic director Laurie Sansom's own adaptation of Muriel Spark's

1970 novel, The Driver's Seat, which will play in Edinburgh and Glasgow in July, also forms part of the Belong season. This study of one woman's final days as she travels to a European country in search of 'the one' continues Sansom's affinity with Spark's work, which dates back to his production of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie when still in charge of the Royal & Derngate Theatre, Northampton.

One of Dundee Rep's highlights promises to be a look at Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus (April 8-25) by director Stewart Laing. This will be Laing's first main-stage outing since his internationally renowned company, Untitled Projects, were turned down for Regular Funding by Creative Scotland, a move which has forced the company to close down operations indefinitely.

While the country's commercial stages see tours of To Kill A Mockingbird, Twelve Angry Men and The King's Speech to town, the Headlong company follow last year's tour of 1984 by bringing a new production of David Hare's The Absence of War (March 31-April 4)to the Citizens. With an Election looming, Hare's dramatic study of the Labour Party, penned after the fall-out of the 1992 UK General Election looks set to be a timely piece of programming.

Edinburgh's festivals season may seem a long way off, but Edinburgh International Festival have already trailed their programme by announcing a new production of Antigone (August 9-22) at the King's Theatre. The fact that the title role will be played by star of stage and screen Juliet Binoche already makes it a tantalising prospect, but what elevates it even further is the fact that it is directed by Ivo van Hove. Van Hove is the former director of the Holland Festival, one of the most radical festivals on the European circuit, and his first Edinburgh appearance for many years bodes well for incoming EIF director Fergus Linehan's tenure in what looks set to be a busy year ahead.

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