Scottish playwright Douglas Maxwell's site-specific piece about the subculture of swings is performed in various playgrounds around the country. Given that gangs of nine-year-olds develop a lexicon entirely to themselves, the title probably requires a word of explanation. To do a bronco you have to "worky up to the bumps, kick the swing over your heid and jump beneath it." (Translation: build up momentum until the ropes slacken, then jump off so that the swing coils itself back around the bar. Don't try this at home.)
For the junior-school class of 1983 in Girvan, western Scotland, bronco-ing filled the conceptual space between Star Wars and soccer. It was also a useful hierarchical technique for making the runt of the group feel worse. A gang can define itself only by having someone to gang up on - in this case poor, docile Decky, who has a special teacher at school and will never master the art of stunts on swings. But there's a Decky in every park in the land. He's not so much a character as a social requirement.
Maxwell's childhood adventure begins with a volley of heart-stopping aerial acrobatics, but swiftly turns into a poignant study of the pain of social exclusion. Eight adults play the roles like JM Barrie's Lost Boys who are doomed to grow up. By placing the action around the swings, Maxwell locates the drama in the difficult hinterland where aggressive adulthood emerges from childish display. Rarely have the mood swings of burgeoning adolescence found a more appropriate metaphor.
Ben Harrison's production, a joint venture between Scottish new-writing specialists Grid Iron and London's Almeida, makes excellent use of the al fresco arrangements. Having the audience perch in a big circle on little wooden stools even makes it feel like story time at primary school, and Maxwell's tale is primal enough to appeal to everyone from the age of the characters upwards.
Nonetheless, there are moments when nuances are lost. Maxwell's script is not without its moments of inaudible introspection and the device of the younger characters being shadowed by their older selves is not always intelligible. But if you choose to set a play in a children's playground it's bound to be swings and roundabouts.
Ends tonight. Box office: 0161-274 0600. Then tours to Newcastle, London, Oxford, Bath and Brighton. Details: 020-7359 4404.
