The history of Tramway official starts in 1990, with the Capital of Culture. The connections made in that year led to an ongoing programme of performance that included regular visits from Peter Brook, Robert Lepage, Les Ballets C de la B and Belgium’s Victoria. In the past five years, Tramway has entered a new phase. The addition of a Hidden Garden out the back, the arrival of Scottish Ballet in a purpose built wing and a new emphasis on community engagement – much in the fashion of contemporary art policy – suggest that Tramway is moving in a new, dynamic direction.

There are two “theatres” within Tramway: the majestic T1, dominated by the apparently ancient red wall, built for the Mahabharata; the more intimate T4, a long, versatile space ideal for solo and immersive performance.  The stage in T1 is large enough for an opera house, and has hosted large scale ballet, opera and even orchestras. T4 was, for many years, the home of Into The New, the graduating programme of the Royal Scottish Academy’s contemporary performance degree.

Despite a location away from the city centre, Tramway has a profile that extends beyond the city. Its support of choreography that is more usually found in major venues, such as Sadler’s Wells, has made it something of a cult within the dance community. Aside from the visitors, it has supported local and emerging artists through a series of schemes. This heritage is reflected in the new dance studios, that offer residencies for artists like the goddess Iona Kewney or punk icon Linder.

During the IETM, Cryptic present Orlando – also part of Glasgay!  An appropriate choice, as Cryptic’s artistic director Cathie Boyd was inspired by Tramway during the year of the City of Culture. Her willingness to make large scale theatre, that pulls on opera, technology and elaborate staging echoes the diverse companies that have graced the former tramshed.

Both a fine example of how industrial spaces were occupied by the arts when traditional industries began to disappear, and an ongoing experiment in linking performance, visual art and public space, Tramway is worth a visit for far more than just a show. The Hidden Garden is a small oasis in a very urban city, the use of the cafe by the local community reveals the various creative groups at work. A brief tour unveils art classes and the rehearsals of Junction 25, Scotland’s most experimental youth theatre. A building so idiosyncratic can never be an emblem of Glasgow’s culture, yet it represents the best of the West Coast: individual, lively and constantly surprising.   

The Maids is one of the few scripts in this year’s Glasgay! that has not been commissioned by the festival: October sees new work from local heroes Drew Taylor, Louise Welsh, Rachel Amey and Wendy Miller. It is, however, typical of the Glasgay! approach. Written by Jean Genet, an icon of queer literature, directed by Derek McLuckie, it takes the story of a Parisian scandal of the 1930s as a starting point for a study of power, submission and murder. McLuckie, who wrote and directed a version of Tennessee William’s life, Elysian Fields, twists Genet’s original further by dragging up the cast.

The history of Glasgay! reveals a stunning growth – in 2004, only 3000 people attended, while over 35000 were registered in 2009  - but also demonstrates the social shifts of the past decades. While Glasgay! has never veered away from the controversial – last year, a transsexual vision of Jesus led to a vigorous debate about censorship and religious sensibilities – it still crosses over into the mainstream: the Theatre Royal, perhaps the most established of Glasgow’s theatres, regularly offers a couple of performances as part of the programme. And, like the IETM, Glasgay! has alliances with most of the city’s theatres.

McLuckie is a fine representative of Glasgay!: despite a strong kitsch aesthetic, he incorporates an idiosyncratic spirituality into his melodramas. Glasgay! itself has a peculiar Glaswegian sensibility, both mainstream and alternative, inclusive and provocative. It is perchance more than a  coincidence that Thomson himself is a former coo league of another Glasgow legend, Nikki Millican – as is Steve Slater of the IETM. The enthusiasm they both show for radical experimental performance, while firmly believing in its ultimate accessibility, mirrors a broader West Coast trend, expressed as clearly in venues like The Tron and The Arches. This is a considerable factor in the ease of collaboration between venues, companies and festival programming.