Pitlochry Festival Theatre is set to open its 2025 Studio season with the world première of Milly Sweeney’s debut play Water Colour, winner of the St Andrews Playwriting 2024 Award, which aims to support and develop the next generation of Scottish playwrights.
Produced in partnership with the Byre Theatre and Playwrights’ Studio Scotland, Water Colour is directed by award-winning actor and director Sally Reid (Scot Squad, BBC Scotland and Shirley Valentine, Pitlochry Festival Theatre). It will be at Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s Studio from 9 until 17 May and then head to the Byre Theatre for 28 and 29 May.
Esme is at an all-time low, struggling with her studies and her art. She finds herself standing on the railing of one of the bridges that crosses the Clyde, which leads to a chance encounter with a boy who changes her life forever. A boy who she may never see again. Could Esme now finally find the road to recovery, healing, and self-acceptance?
Meanwhile, Harris is thriving. He is finally moving out of his mum’s house and starting a new job in a high-end restaurant kitchen. One night, whilst walking home from work, he sees a girl about to do something awful. A girl who he may never see again. If Harris were to struggle with his mental health, who would be there for him? Would his mates take him seriously?
Water Colour is a story about connection, mental illness, and opening yourself up to the world.
Established in 2022, The St Andrews Playwriting Award encourages and supports the next generation of playwrights living in Scotland. The award provides a key opportunity for an emerging professional playwright’s career development. The winner of the Award received a commission and a professional production, co-produced by Pitlochry Festival Theatre and the Byre Theatre, which is performed in the main auditorium of The Byre Theatre and in Pitlochry Festival Theatre Studio Theatre.
The production’s cast will feature Molly Geddes (Lockerbie, Netflix) as Esme and Ryan J Mackay (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, West End, Kidnapped, National Theatre of Scotland and Lockerbie, Netflix) as Harris. All other roles will be played by the cast.
Director Sally Reid said:
“I’m thrilled to be coming back to Pitlochry this year to direct Water Colour, Milly Sweeney’s debut play. The first time I read it the characters sprang off the page and I was immersed in their vivid worlds.
Milly’s play delves quickly and succinctly into the heads and hearts of the characters as they navigate through the complexities of staying afloat in their young adult lives, surviving in Glasgow, a new city to both of them. A city which they traverse through in the action of the play. It brings hope when the characters believe there is none and hopefully the audience will feel that sense of uplifting hope when they leave.”
Water Colour runs in the Studio at Pitlochry Festival Theatre from 9 until 17 May and then will head to the Byre Theatre on 28 and 29 May.
