Glas(s) Act

A marriage that endures for a lifetime is such a rarity today that many of us would be less surprised to meet a leprechaun riding atop a unicorn than a couple still committed to one another after 50 years. Life Long, the new project from Glas(s) Performance will introduce just such a couple - long-time spouses, Tillie and Ronnie Jeffrey - and invite an audience to spend an evening with them as they celebrate their 52nd wedding anniversary.

“The inspiration for us comes out of an interest in exploring what it means to have a shared a lifetime,” notes company co-founder Jess Thorpe. “In a culture in where the institution of marriage is not necessarily the next step or the norm for young people, we explore the old fashioned fairytale of ‘forever’ from the perspective of one couple who have been there – for better or worse.”

This is work about the true history of a relationship, and Glas(s) Performance is “committed to a socially engaged theatre practice that uses real people in the place of fictional characters to tell stories that resonate with audiences of all ages and experience.” Creating that resonance, and doing justice to the time the Jeffreys have spent together has required, in turn, a substantial commitment of time and effort from Thorpe and her creative partner, Tashi Gore. “We’ve been working with Tillie and Ronnie for a year and a half on Life Long – it’s taken this long for us to feel like it is what we all want it to be. I guess things take the time they take.”

For Thorpe and Gore, Life Long is the next step in developing their “socially engaged theatre practice.” Previous work Chip delved into Thorpe’s relationship with her father, and that experience strengthened their understanding of their work from the perspective of collaborators, like the Jeffreys, whose real lives provide the basis of their work, and they seem resolved to do justice to their subjects.

In addition to marrying into their creative process for such a long stretch, Gore and Thorpe were determined to find a suitable venue in which to present Tillie and Ronnie’s story. Fortunately, their need coincided with the temporary closure of The Arches because of improvements to Central Station, and that venue’s creation of the Arches Off-Site programme, resulting in Life Long's presentation at The Glasgow Art Club. “It felt important that we find a venue that would work for the type of event we are trying to create, which is framed a little like an 'anniversary party',” Thorpe explains. “The Art Club has that feel and its cabaret style of presentation, with tables and a bar, allows the right kind of environment for Tillie and Ronnie to tell their story, with the audience as their 'guests'.”

It should be quite a party, and it can only be hoped that Thorpe and Gore’s experiences leave them equipped to chart something as grand and unusual as a life truly shared.