With just a week to go before tickets go on sale for the 2023 summer season, Pitlochry Festival Theatre has today announced further details on this year’s creative line up, as well as the world première of a new Scottish musical in the Theatre’s Studio performance space.
Running from 19 May until 30 September, the 2023 season will feature in its Auditorium, the legendary musical Gypsy (19 May-30 September) directed by the Theatre’s Associate Director Ben Occhipinti (Sunshine on Leith and Noises Off, Pitlochry Festival Theatre) as well as a rare Scottish theatre revival of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire (2 June-30 September); and the Scottish première of Emma Rice’s acclaimed adaptation of Noël Coward’s Brief Encounter (16 June-29 September). Both productions will be directed by the Theatre’s Artistic Director Elizabeth Newman (Sunshine on Leith and Adventures with the Painted People, Pitlochry Festival Theatre).
In August the auditorium will stage the world première of Scottish playwright Peter Arnott’s new play Group Portrait In A Summer Landscape (25 August – 28 September), co-produced by Pitlochry Festival Theatre with the Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh. Set in a Perthshire country house during the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, this bold, funny, and deeply thoughtful play explores family and the forces that shaped the Scotland we live in today.
It will be directed by The Lyceum’s Artistic Director David Greig who previously wrote the award-winning play Adventures with the Painted People and Under Another Sky for Pitlochry Festival Theatre.
After a highly successful opening season in 2022, the Theatre’s Studio will stage the première of To The Bone (18 August-29 September),the acclaimed Scottish playwright Isla Cowan’s (She Wolf, Edinburgh Festival Fringe) new play which explores haunting, healing, and what we call ‘home’.
The Studio will also be welcoming for the first time A Play, A Pie and A Pint with two exciting new co-productions. Opening in July, Uma Nada-Rajah’s (Exodus, National Theatre of Scotland) The Great Replacement (3-8 July) is a darkly comedic romp through intergenerational politics and the absurdities and peculiarities of race. Directed by Jemima Levick, the play is produced by A Play, A Pie, and A Pint, based at Òran Mór, and co-presented with Macrobert Arts Centre and Pitlochry Festival Theatre. In September the Studio will host Forever Home (11-16 September), Pauline Lockhart and Alan Penman’s new uplifting and inspiring musical which explores identity, family and finding your way home. The new musical play is produced by A Play, A Pie, and A Pint co-presented with Pitlochry Festival Theatre.
Finally, the 2023 Studio season will see the welcome return of The Maggie Wall (9-28 June), Martin McCormick’s acclaimed play which is a co-production with Aberdeen Arts Centre. The production is directed by Aberdeen Arts Centre’s new Director Amy Liptrott.
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 story The Secret Garden (7 July-19 August) and the return of the sold-out tale of Sherlock Holmes: A Study in Lipstick, Ketchup and Blood (1-22 September), Lesley Hart’s adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1887 classic Sherlock Holmes adventure A Study in Scarlet. The acclaimed play, directed by Marc Small, will be a co-production with OVO and will open to the Roman Theatre in St Albans in June before heading back to Pitlochry in September.
The 2023 Ensemble will be announced in the coming weeks.
Elizabeth Newman, Artistic Director of Pitlochry Festival Theatre said: “I am thrilled to be able to share our Pitlochry 2023 season with the world and we can’t wait to welcome the world to Pitlochry this summer. It’s a real mixture of different work for people to enjoy – musicals, big plays, new dramas and heartwarming stories. We are also partnering with lots of exciting Scottish organisations including Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh again, as well as Aberdeen Arts Centre and A Play, A Pie and A Pint for the first time. We are also excited to venture to OVO, Britain’s oldest Roman theatre. It’s great to be able to welcome lots of new artists and creatives to Pitlochry this summer, as well as to be reunited with some longstanding collaborators.”
Tickets for the 2023 season will go on general sale on Wednesday 1 March at 10am. For further information on tickets and productions visit www.pitlochryfestivaltheatre.com or call 01796 484626.
