Photo credit: Keith Brame

Photo credit: Keith Brame

Decky Does A Bronco

Touring

August-September 2000, May-September 2001, July-August 2002, May-September 2010

Created by Grid Iron, Decky Does a Bronco by Douglas Maxwell was a massive hit at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2000, winning a Scotsman Fringe First Award. It toured Scotland in 2000, and both Scotland and a major tour of six English cities in 2001, in collaboration with the Almeida, including the Almeida at Coram’s Fields, Northern Stage at Newcastle and the Oxford Playhouse. It was nominated for the TMA/Barclays award for Best Touring Production 2001. Set in the summer of 1983 on the west coast of Scotland, Maxwell’s play charts the dreams, passions and above all games of a group of boys who spend most of their time on and around a set of swings.

It was revived in 2002 and again in 2010 for a major tour of sites across the UK.

Decky, the smallest child, is unable to bronco and becomes the butt of all the boys’ jokes, until an unimaginable tragedy overcomes them all. Eight actors – trained as acrobats – played out this powerful work of the perilous journey from childhood to adulthood in outdoor spaces across the UK.
Winner Scotsman Fringe First Award for New Writing 2000
Winner Stage Award for Best Ensemble 2000
Nominated for TMA/Barclays Award for Best Touring Production 2001

Neil Cooper, The Times

theatre that effortlessly breathes straight from the heart.

Charles Spencer, The Daily Telegraph

Ben Harrison’s spell-binding production heart-wrenchingly captures the precise moment when innocence gives way to appalled knowledge of man’s inhumanity to man. . .an outstanding piece, at once delicate and tough.

Joyce McMillan, The Herald

an event that haunts the memory.

Paul Taylor, The Independent

Ben Harrison’s haunting, funny, bittersweet production.

Lyn Gardner, The Guardian

Grid Iron is unsurpassed in its ability to create site specific work where there is a perfect marriage of site and subject.

Susannah Clapp, The Observer

dynamically directed by Ben Harrison. . .a production which made you think about what it is that makes a stage.