Sting in the tale

Those of a nervous disposition may wish to steer clear of The Wasp Factory, a touring production based on the book of the same name.

The debut novel of acclaimed Scottish writer Iain Banks caused quite a stir when it was first published in 1984, depicting as it did a horrifying world of madness, neglect and ritualistic killing.

The narrator of the story is Frank, a 16-year-old who lives on an island and is something of a troubled soul, to put it very mildly. On the face of it, he’s a deranged psychopath, raised in isolation by a twisted father, who lives his life according to the arbitrary movements of insects.

Anyone who has read the novel will appreciate the challenge playwright Malcolm Sutherland faced in creating a stage adaptation. The play is necessarily a different experience to the book, and its relative power to shock perhaps depends on how vividly readers and audiences allow themselves to imagine the bizarre horrors of this distinctly macabre and richly allegorical tale.

The Wasp Factory opens at the Tron Theatre, Glasgow on April 22 (with previews from April 17-19) then tours Scotland.