IS OUR sexuality pre-determined? Is it linear? Are we all, to a degree, bisexual?

What about David Bowie’s argument, that it’s not the sex of the person which holds our intrigue, but their personality – and how they make us feel?

These questions, and many more, are thrown into the wash that is Mike Bartlett’s play, Not The Chicken (not the actual title billed to run at Glasgow’s Tron Theatre, but decorum demands we use a substitute.)

And what become clear is the colours in the mix all run delightfully.

The play tells of young man, John, who, after his long-term relationship with a man breaks down, meets a woman and falls in love.

But he is wracked with guilt and indecision about who he is and what he wants. And now John has to make a choice.

Lip Service star James Anthony Pearson, who plays John, suggests that linear sexuality is more a sub-theme of the play.

“John doesn’t really want to think in those terms. He prefers to think he is what he is and he likes these two people for different reasons.”

It’s an interesting idea; you are attracted to someone because of the role you take up within the relationship?

“Yes, exactly,” says the former Scottish Youth Theatre actor.

“The woman allows him to be a romantic, a dreamer, and she doesn’t interrupt him. She allows him expression, and he’s sexually attracted to her as well.

“But he’s in the relationship with the man because the man is stronger. John likes not having to be strong, and not having to think; everything happens for him.”

Tron Theatre Company’s production of Mike Bartlett’s sharp and witty play will be the first UK staging since its Royal Court premiere six years ago.

The actor, who was born in Lancashire, brought up in Aberdeen and now lives in Glasgow, maintains it’s a play he simply had to do.

“I think it’s one of the best plays I’ve ever read. I wanted to appear in it since I read it four or five years ago and when I heard Andy Arnold (the director) at the Tron was doing it I emailed and said ‘Please let me do it!’”

The play also explores the idea if there is a sell-by date on dating and commitment.

“Yes, the play questions why people remain in long term relationships. John, for example, is very weak. He can’t make decisions. But what we do learn is that all three characters should leave the triangle. Yet, somehow they can’t.”

Some would suggest people are essentially gay or not. Yet this play suggests otherwise?

“Mmm. I’m in a long-term relationship, with a man, and that’s very much who I am. But I think there is a spectrum. And I know people who are in heterosexual relationships who have skeletons in their closest.”

He adds, with a wry smile; “I think that’s where the problems emerge. It’s the secrets.

“But this is where Mike Bartlett has been very clever. His character John is likeable because he’s open about everything.”

James Anthony Pearson is perfectly placed to play such an angular character. Now 35, has revealed his considerable range in TV drama such as Lip Service and film Control, in which he played New Order frontman Bernard Sumner.

He always wanted to act, (“It’s part of who I am as a person.”) but in spite of his SYT and school drama experience, didn’t take off to drama college.

Rather oddly, (for an aspiring actor) he studied Maths and Physics at Edinburgh University.

“Going to drama school just wasn’t done in my family. So my plan was to go to uni to study something I was good at, and then take up acting on the side.

“I joined the Footlights and while at uni I auditioned for a part in a TV series called Jeopardy (the children’s sci-fi series set in Scotland and Australia. And I got I, from a hundred or so others) and it was brilliant.”

University was jettisoned. “I tried to continue the degree while in Australia, via the Open University, but there I was on set working out complex analysis equations and thinking ‘Why the hell am I doing this?’”

Acting is not James’ only talent. He has secured funding from Creative Scotland to write his own screenplay, featuring the young Stan Laurel.

“I write for two hours each morning before coming to rehearsals and I love it.”

Was he a Stan Laurel fan? “I knew of them. I learned more about Stan when I did a radio play about his life when he appeared at Glasgow’s Panopticon Theatre.

“But my film isn’t about Laurel and Hardy, it’s about how Stan finds his screen character. In researching the radio play I discovered he was part of a double act with a woman called May. It was a dysfunctional relationship, He would be beaten up by this woman who was brilliant on stage, but not so great on stage.

“He stayed with her ten years on stage. But it made me wonder why. Was he the battered wife in this case? Did part of him wish to be controlled? Did he feel dependent on the talent she brought to the act?”

Seems there are Not The Chicken-like themes in here? “That’s definitely the case,” he says, smiling.

“Again it’s a functioning dysfunctional relationship in which both parties stay together and choose to be miserable because they are scared to be alone.”

* ‘Not The Chicken’ also stars Johnny McKnight, Isobel McArthur and Vincent Friel, the Tron Theatre until February 20.