AFTER the success of Border Warfare last year, Wildcat are returning

to the Tramway in March and April with another ambitious project, a

promenade production -- entitled John Brown's Body -- about the history

of the industrial working class in Scotland. The script will again be

written by John McGrath (who also directs), music will be by Rab

Handleigh and the cast of 18 will include Dave Anderson, John Bett and

Billy Riddoch.

Like Border Warfare, this production has been devised to make full use

of the Tramway's exceptional, flexible space. A model of Pamela Howard's

set gives a tantalising hint of what's in store for audiences. An

overhead wooden walkway snakes round the walls -- those on top of it

are, according to McGrath, ''official'' history, the ones making capital

out of the Industrial Revolution -- while underneath live the working

classes, surrounded by towering wheels and gantries of pithead, mill,

shipyard and factory.

Wildcat's artistic director David MacLennan describes the piece as

''re-establishing that socialism has good goals, humane goals and has,

in Scotland, been achieved by decent activities''. He added that he

didn't think the total lack of commercial sponsorship for John Brown's

Body had anything to do with the politics of the play, rather it

reflected the ongoing fickleness of business sponsorship. The money for

John Brown's Body has come from local authorities and Freeway who will

be filming the piece for Channel 4, currently broadcasting Border

Warfare on Saturday evenings.