Pitlochry Festival Theatre has today announced an exciting line up of world premières, classic plays, new writing and a smash-hit musical for its 2023 summer season.
Running from 19 May until 30 September, the 2023 season will open with the legendary musical Gypsy. With lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, the musical tells the story of the burlesque performer Gypsy Rose Lee and her ambitious showbiz mother, Rose.
This will be followed by a rare Scottish theatre revival of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire. Williams’ masterpiece follows sisters Blanche and Stella’s reunion in New Orleans. Reality and illusion collide for these complex women, especially when Stella’s husband Stanley uncovers hidden truths.
The 2023 season in the Auditorium will host the Scottish première of Emma Rice’s acclaimed adaptation of Noël Coward’s Brief Encounter in which a chance meeting at a railway station tearoom hurls two strangers headlong into a whirlwind romance that threatens to blow their worlds apart. It will also feature the world première of Scottish playwright Peter Arnott’s new play Group Portrait In A Summer Landscape, co-produced with the Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh.
After a highly successful opening season in 2022, the Theatre’s new Studio will stage the première of To The Bone, Scottish playwright Isla Cowan’s (She Wolf, Edinburgh Festival Fringe) new play which explores haunting, healing, and what we call ‘home’. The new performance space will also see Pitlochry Festival Theatre collaborate with A Play, A Pie and A Pint for the first time with The Great Replacement, Uma Nada-Rajah’s darkly comedic romp through intergenerational politics and the absurdities and peculiarities of race.
Finally, the 2023 Studio season will see the welcome return of The Maggie Wall, Martin McCormick’s acclaimed play inspired by a mysterious monument built in Dunning, Perthshire to commemorate the death of a woman who was tried and executed in the 17th century for witchcraft. The Maggie Wall will be a co-production with Aberdeen Arts Centre.
The 2023 season will also see live performances in the venue’s picturesque Amphitheatre, nestled within its Explorers Garden and in the shadow of Ben-y-Vrackie, with the première of Elizabeth Newman’s new adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s much-loved classic tale The Secret Garden and the return of the sold-out tale of Sherlock Holmes: A Study in Lipstick, Ketchup and Blood, Lesley Hart’s adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1887 classic Sherlock Holmes adventure A Study in Scarlet. The acclaimed play will be a co-production with OVO and will transfer to the Roman Theatre in St Albans later in the year.
In February, Pitlochry Festival Theatre can’t wait to announce the news of its tenth and final production of its 2023 season – the world première of a brand-new play that is set to captivate audiences this Summer.
Elizabeth Newman, Artistic Director of Pitlochry Festival Theatre said: “We are proud to continue to be the nation’s largest producing Theatre located in beautiful Pitlochry. We reach audiences and artists from all across Scotland (mainland and islands), and we cannot wait to spend next year deepening our relationships locally, regionally, and nationally.
This summer season we also collaborate with other companies to share Pitlochry with the world and the world with Pitlochry. We will collaborate with A Play, a Pie and a Pint, OVO and Aberdeen Arts Centre, all for the first time and continue our important relationship with the Royal Lyceum Edinburgh.
Pitlochry Festival Theatre prides itself on making great drama in the heart of Scotland and we can’t wait to welcome more people to get involved through our participation activities too, and if you’re an artist, you can also connect with us through our different talent development initiatives and Writers Room.
The investment made by Creative Scotland and Perth & Kinross Council to Pitlochry Festival Theatre enables us to create meaningful, accessible, and entertaining work for the people of Scotland. In a typical year, we reach audiences across an extraordinary third of the entire country and have the widest reach of any Scottish theatre maker. With the support of these two organisations, we are delighted to provide theatre Inside, Outside and Online for all.”
Further to an already great line-up of theatre, Pitlochry Festival Theatre will also be celebrating live music throughout the season by hosting a series of Inside and Outside events, featuring music from the great musicals.
Ahead of the start of the summer 2023 season, Pitlochry Festival Theatre will be staging its annual Winter Words Festival (9 – 12 February), which will be in person for the first time in two years and will include the extremely popular Banff Mountain Film Festival (11 February) and The Makings of a Murderer (12 February) with the Scottish detective David Swindle.
Further information about the casting for the 2023 ensemble and the full line up for the Winter Words Festival will be announced in the coming months.
Tickets for the 2023 season will go on sale to existing Pitlochry Festival Theatre members on Wednesday 15 February 2023 and on general sale on Wednesday 1 March 2023. Tickets for Winter Words Festival will go on sale in mid-January. For further information on tickets and productions visit www.pitlochryfestivaltheatre.com or call 01796 484626.
