By Grace Hatchell, 2nd Act Couriers
Now then.
Grace has delivered many things in her time — love letters, late bills, suspiciously heavy parcels marked “novelty mug” — but she never thought she’d be delivering news of teenagers running the courtroom.
Yet here we are.
Tron Theatre Company is bringing The Trials to the stage — a climate emergency play by award-winning writer Dawn King, directed by Joanna Bowman — and it imagines a future so overheated that the air’s barely breathable, snow is something you only see in history books, and the next generation have decided they’ve had quite enough, thank you very much.
Twelve teenagers sit as the jury.
Twelve.
When I was a teenager, I could barely decide what to wear to the school disco, never mind determine the moral culpability of an entire generation. My biggest protest was refusing to eat my greens and dramatically flouncing to my bedroom like I’d been wronged by the United Nations.
These young ones? They’re putting adults in the dock.
Set in a not-too-distant future where temperatures keep climbing and the damage is done, The Trials centres on three adults accused of contributing to the catastrophe. Played by Brian Ferguson, Maryam Hamidi and Pauline Goldsmith, they face a jury made up entirely of young people — a cast of twelve teenage actors from across Glasgow.
And don’t you dare think “youth theatre” and settle back comfortably.
This is main stage. Professional production. Full weight of the Tron behind it.
The teenagers believe the older generation knew what was happening. Said the right things. Promised the right targets. But ultimately did nothing. And now they’re the ones living in the mess.
The question hanging in the air is simple and sharp: is this justice… or revenge?
Dawn King’s script, a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, doesn’t tiptoe. It confronts. It provokes. It even dares to be funny in the middle of it all — which, frankly, is the most theatrical thing of all. Because if you can’t laugh while staring down the apocalypse, what are you meant to do?
Director Joanna Bowman hands the stage to the young company, asking adults to sit in the dark and consider how they might be judged. It’s theatre doing what it does best — gathering strangers together and making them squirm, think, and maybe shuffle a little in their seats.
And as I read about it, I did wonder…
If someone had handed me a gavel at sixteen, would I have used it wisely? Or would I have sentenced my maths teacher to community service for crimes against algebra?
Thankfully, no one did.
But in The Trials, the young cast aren’t playing at rebellion. They’re interrogating it. And that’s far more unsettling.
It’s bold. It’s urgent. And it sounds like one of those evenings where you leave the theatre slightly changed — and possibly glancing at your recycling habits on the way home.
Grace will be attending, of course.
Though if any teenagers ask me what I was doing about the climate crisis at seventeen, I may have to plead youthful ignorance and point out I was still figuring out how to operate a hair straightener without setting off the smoke alarm.
Court adjourned.
LISTINGS INFORMATION
Venue:Tron Theatre, 63 Trongate, Glasgow G1 5HB
Dates: Fri 06 & Sat 07 Mar 7.30pm (previews)
Tue 10 Mar, 7.30pm (press performance)
Tue 10 – Sat 14 Mar, 7.30pm
Matinee: Sat 14 Mar, 2.30PM
Tickets: ?14.50 (Previews), ?19, ?23 or ?26
Box office: 0141 552 4267 / www.tron.co.uk
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