Cormac Myles, Alex Burns, Harry Reid and Scott Taylor of Point5 Theatre aiming to make show ‘The Ballad of Sonia The Skunk’ affordable to audiences.

A talented troupe from Airdrie are preparing to tread the boards in the town with a brilliant brand of affordable theatre.

Cormac Myles, Alex Burns, Harry Reid and Scott Taylor of Point5 Theatre will be taking to the Airdrie Arts Centre stage next week with their debut play The Ballad of Sonia The Skunk .

The quartet of friends run a company creating social and community-focused work and have deliberately lowered ticket prices for their first official production to “the level of class and funding we see every day”.

Cormac, artistic lead, who wrote The Ballad of Sonia The Skunk . told Lanarkshire Live: “The play is an exploration of working class upbringing and tropes set against a backdrop of those with a bus pass and bungalow.

“It follows Amanda and Leonard as they navigate the rekindling of their marriage whilst an invasive and arrogant skunk tries to get in the way.

“On its surface level, it’s a chaotic farce comedy, but beneath we believe it’s something that will really resonate with the audiences and people of Airdrie.

“We have deliberately lowered our ticket prices performing here to the level of class and funding we see every day.

“We know it’s difficult to go to the theatre these days and want to change that.”

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The idea for the show came about through an emoji – with Cormac developing the story since it was announced last September.

He explained: “On a Facebook Messenger group chat I randomly changed the emoji to a skunk and just started writing after that.

“I knew wanted to write something focusing on working class people and the main characters are what I can see my parents being like in 20 or 30 years.

“The skunk eventually fit perfectly into the story and The Ballad of Sonia The Skunk is camp, chaotic and crazy.

“It’s high-energy with a lot of one-liners and big movement pieces, and draws on the humour of things like Still Game .”

Cormac, Alex, Harry and Scott met when they were 13 or 14 and attended a youth theatre group at Airdrie Arts Centre.

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Point5 Theatre was founded in July last year and the fabulous four were keen to stage their debut play in a venue they knew well.

Cormac said: “We approached Imagine That arts school founder Kieran McMath to say we wanted to hold the play in Airdrie Arts Centre and he gave us the space, lighting and rehearsal room for free.

“This was a wonderful gesture and the arts centre is the perfect place to stage The Ballad of Sonia The Skunk as it’s right in the heart of Airdrie.”

Cormac added: “Harry and Scott are in the cast too alongside Rebecca Conway who plays Amanda – she is absolutely amazing.

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“We also found two outstanding collaborative artists, Hope Hill and Liv Currie.

“We have all been attached to the play for a while and have a real passion to bring a professional theatre group to Airdrie.

“The show has been a long time coming and everyone is buzzing to take to the stage.

“And maybe we’ll discover things we didn’t know about the play through audience reactions, like subtext we didn’t pick up on.”

The Ballad of Sonia The Skunk will take place at Airdrie Arts Centre on April 11 and 12, with performances at 7pm both days and one at 3pm on the second day.

To buy tickets now, head to Point5 Theatre’s website.

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