At a time when most theatre companies are scrabbling for funding, it seems a little bonkers to be bringing a new one into the world. Still, that has proved no deterrent to Scottish theatre stalwarts Mary McCluskey and Kenny Miller, who launch their new company Theatre Jezebel at the Tron this week with a production of Neil LaBute’s Autobahn, a series of short plays set in the front seats of cars.

For McCluskey, the artistic director of Scottish Youth Theatre since 1992 and Miller, formerly the head of design and associate director of the Citizens’ Theatre, it was creative rather than financial forces that spurred them on.

“Kenny and myself have been collaborating over a number of years and when you work with like-minded people you have a wishlist of plays that you’d like to see put on, so we decided that rather than wish we’d do them ourselves,” says McCluskey. “It’s a difficult time for theatre but the other thing is that there are so many great actors who are not on stage and that’s not something that’s good for Scottish theatre.”

Incredibly, given his status as one of America’s greatest living playwrights, LaBute’s work is rarely performed professionally on the Scottish stage. The last time was in 2003 when the Citizens staged Bash, a trio of monologues about murder.

“We both like the work of Neil LaBute, his take on the human condition and on relationships and we were looking for something that would make a statement about Theatre Jezebel but would allow both of us a platform for our directing and designing work as well,” says McClusky. They split the shorts down the middle so that they could direct three each. “There’s actually seven pieces and we decided there was one neither of us was particularly interested in so we cut it to six and then we just split them according to which ones we liked best. Luckily, we didn’t have any arguments which bodes well for the future.”

As ever, LaBute’s writing, dense with dramatic tension, peers intimately into a world of muddled relationships — a world of dating teens, worried parents, suspicious couples and best friends who awkwardly fill the awkward silence of car journeys.

“That intrigued me, the fact that you’re restricted by being in the front seat of a car and you have to focus on the actors and the text and what’s actually happening in those relationships within the confined little bubble that’s the car,” says McCluskey.

LaBute fans will be thrilled by the opportunity to see his work in Scotland once again, but what’s in store from Theatre Jezebel in the future?

“We’ve decided we’re not going to name any names but we’re both interested in contemporary takes on classics and contemporary writers who challenge the audiences as well as the writers and directors. Expect the unexpected is all I’m going to say.”

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