Underwood Lane (eBook)

Underwood Lane - the winter sun hangs like a suppurating boil glued to a giant sheet of dirty asbestos above the blackened tenements that rear up from the cobbled street like a row of broken teeth... Brilliantly funny and packed with iconic songs from the early Sixties, this is a new musical play from the writer of the classic Scottish masterpiece, The Slab Boys Trilogy. Telling the tale of a young skiffle band trying to make it, Underwood Lane has it all: style, fierce love rivalry, broken hearts, dodgy dealers, religion, sex and death. It is written in memory of the author's Paisley buddy, Gerry Rafferty, who was born and brought up on the titular street. John Byrne's Underwood Lane premiered in a co-production between Tron Theatre Company and OneRen with support from Renfrewshire Council's Future Paisley Programme. The play opened at Johnstone Town Hall, Johnstone, and transferred to the Tron Theatre, Glasgow, in July 2022.

John Byrne was born in Paisley in 1940. He worked as a 'slab boy' at AFT Stoddard, the carpet manufacturers, before going to Glasgow School of Art. He became a full-time painter in 1968 following his first London exhibition. His plays include Nova Scotia, Slab Boys, Cuttin' a Rug, Still Life, Writer's Cramp, Normal Service, Cara Coco and Colquhoun and MacBryde. For TV, he is best known for his BAFTA award-winning series Tutti Frutti (adapted for the stage by National Theatre of Scotland, UK tour), and Your Cheatin' Heart. He was a distinguished theatre designer and designed productions for the Traverse Theatre, 7:84, Hampstead Theatre, the Bush Theatre and Scottish Opera.

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Underwood Lane - the winter sun hangs like a suppurating boil glued to a giant sheet of dirty asbestos above the blackened tenements that rear up from the cobbled street like a row of broken teeth... Brilliantly funny and packed with iconic songs from the early Sixties, this is a new musical play from the writer of the classic Scottish masterpiece, The Slab Boys Trilogy. Telling the tale of a young skiffle band trying to make it, Underwood Lane has it all: style, fierce love rivalry, broken hearts, dodgy dealers, religion, sex and death. It is written in memory of the author's Paisley buddy, Gerry Rafferty, who was born and brought up on the titular street. John Byrne's Underwood Lane premiered in a co-production between Tron Theatre Company and OneRen with support from Renfrewshire Council's Future Paisley Programme. The play opened at Johnstone Town Hall, Johnstone, and transferred to the Tron Theatre, Glasgow, in July 2022.