Opera Scotland

Sloans Project

Tours by decade

Tours by location

Sloans

Sloans is an innovative promenade opera telling stories based on the pub's history, performed within the building itself and presenting scenes from the lives of people who have frequented Sloans. For those who don't know Glasgow, Sloans consists of a number of rooms across a building of three storeys.

Life and Death

For the first performances, there were four scenes called Mad for It, Country Song, Chopin's Ghosts and Young Love.  In Sloans the scenes moved from the ground floor to the first floor, with the final scene being played in the second floor ballroom, set out as a bar.  The stories enacted are about the cycle of love, marriage, birth and death. It is about everyday people in everyday situations. The aim is to draw in the audience - a challenge in which the work succeeds.  As the publicity for the first run of performances says, Opera - but not as you know it!

For the 2013 revival, a fifth scene was added, involving an appearance by Peter Manuel, a serial killer, one of the last men to be hanged in Glasgow. and who was reputed to have been a regular at Sloans.  The scene was called Charm, adding a darker note to great effect.