Theatre

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"One of Britain’s hippest theatre and arts venues” – The Sunday Times

“An extraordinary, challenging, 21st century theatre” –  The Scotsman

The Arches Theatre is the leading provider in Scotland for support to emergent artists and performance practitioners.  Amongst many mentoring schemes and professional development projects, the Arches run the annual Arches Award for New Stage Directors (in collaboration with National Theatre of Scotland and Traverse Theatre), the Artist in Residence and Company in Residence programmes, the Brick Award re-staging opportunity, four annual Scratch nights and the Arches Live! festival of new work.

"The Arches has made it its business to nurture talent from the grass roots up, which is why the Glasgow Company is unique in the UK" - Scotland on Sunday 

“Arches LIVE! – a defiant, unapologetic celebration of theatre that is experimental, often brash, and on occasion rough as a hangover” – Sunday Herald

Accompanying Arches Live! in September, the Arches hold a second, more international, yet equally brave annual festival in April: The Arches Theatre Festival, which has played host to performers as diverse as NYC’s Ann Liv Young, Taylor Mac, The TEAM and The Riot Group, Russia’s Akhe and T.N.F., Dublin’s Pan Pan and London’s Tim Crouch.

“In pole position at the moment is the Arches…. the theatre festival has become a significant event of the cultural year, gleefully blurring distinctions between drama, performance and dance.”  - The Herald

In addition to the two festivals, the Arches also maintain a year-long programme of visiting theatre, including showcases of new work from Derevo, Highway Diner and For We Are Many.  In 2007, Aurora Nova Touring brought Array’s Outre and Jo Stromgren Kompani’s The Convent, and Random Accomplice developed Little Johnny’s Big Gay Musical as part of the Glasgay festival.  And in 2008, you can look forward to work from Natasha Gilmore, Oceanallover, Dogstar and Helen Cuinn. 

"Where does tomorrow's new work come from? Where can you see it today? The answer is the Arches." - The Guardian

Underpinning the visiting theatre programme is the Arches Theatre Company, that continues to stage a variety of work throughout the year, all with founder and recently departed Artistic Director Andy Arnold’s original punk-rock aesthetic; making full use of the half-lit corners and bare brick walls to push the audience’s theatre-going experience in new directions. 

Highlights include the work produced for the “Fifteen Years, Two Fingers” season celebrating the 15th Anniversary of the Arches in 2006 that included The Critics Awards for Theatre in Scotland (CATS) and Peter Brook Open Spaces Award nominated Spend A Penny - a series of monologues staged one-on-one in the toilets, with a ticket price of 1p, and the site-specific, promenade production of Inferno, that took the audience through the nine circles of hell into the deepest bowels of the building. 

Recent years have also seen the success of the Arches Theatre Company’s Christmas shows for children – interpreting works such as The Little Mermaid, Hansel & Gretel and The Water Babies with an Arches infusion of fun and risk.