There is a certain buzz when a theatre plays host to a work's world premiere - even more so if that work is
by Ian Rowlands, a playwright whose last work Marriage of Convenience was acclaimed by press and public alike, even winning the highly desirable Herald Angel award in 1997 at the Edinburgh Fringe. The work then travelled to Glasgow's Tron Theatre. The management were impressed enough to begin discussions with the Cardiff-based company Theatr Y Byd about staging the premiere of Rowlands' next work.
Those discussions have come to fruition and now Blue Heron in the Womb opens next Thursday, May 21, at The Tron, running until Saturday, May 30.
It is described as ''a blackly comic play; a modern-day tragedy of Greek proportions exploring the dark, intimate truths of love, sex, families and death''. This description would seem to fit very well the story which involves a family gathering to scatter the ashes of a dead child.
It promises to be a powerful and challenging piece - and one which will not be performed again until it tours Wales early next year. Contact the box office on 0141 552 4267.
An intensity of a radically different sort is to be found at the King's in Glasgow tomorrow and Saturday nights when The Comedy Store tour brings a selection of rib-tickling raconteurs to the boards. Apart from the wit of the professionals there is a chance to experience the raw edge of new talent in the open mike awards (where more than #5000 in prize money is on offer) - contact 01785 841991 if you think you're smart enough. The line up changes throughout the tour but the standards are high with performers such as Phill Jupitus, Fred MacAulay and Rhona Cameron among the pool of performers taking part.
Contact 0141 287 5511 for ticket details.
Meanwhile over in the West End of the city Bill Bailey spends three nights (Friday to Sunday) at the Cottier Theatre in Hyndland Street. Familiar from countless Festival appearances (and even the telly), the long-haired one looks back in languor with witty ramblings, musical references
and above all hilarious observation. Ticket information from 0141 357 3868.
An actress best known to the general public for her comic performances in many of BBC Scotland's comedy unit productions, Barbara Rafferty, is showing an altogether meatier side to her talent at the Citizens Theatre, where Love, Lies, Bleeding plays until Saturday, May 23.
An altogether more passionate side to the words of Daniel Boyle, writer of Hamish Macbeth is also evident in this tale, devised with Raindog, set in a bar where the regulars learn that even in the haze of smoke which fills the bar and the haze of long-forgotten sobriety, surprising things can happen - even love. The quality of ensemble playing in Raindog productions is a given and this with elements of tenderness and brutality is no exception. Ticket details from 0141 287 5511.
There are three days left to catch a tale which lives up to the description of truly bizarre. Shockheaded Peter, with music by Martyn Jacques played live by the Tiger Lilies brings what is described as a ''junk opera with live animation and big hair'' to Tramway until Saturday. Peter, with frightening locks and talon-like nails has been around since appearing in Heinrich Hoffman's Struwwelpter in 1844.
The reputation of his most recent directors and designers Julian Crouch and Phelim McDermott has also been around long enough to equate with a visually stunning piece which although ageless and timeless is not recommended for children under the age of 10. Ticket information from 0141 287 3900 or www.tramway.org
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