With the ebbing Summer of 2023 on the horizon, and the chill of Autumn and Winter heralding in – rather than dwell on what was, we look towards a new season at Pitlochry Festival Theatre after a rousingly successful 2023 showcase that saw childhood favourites, première studio dramas, and one hell of a fiery and beloved staging of A Streetcar Named Desire.
Pitlochry Festival Theatre has always had a remarkably communal environment, a home, as well as a powerhouse of ingenuity and creativeness in Scottish theatre. It’s artistic director Newman had this to say about the upcoming season:
“I hope there’s something for everyone in this season from musicals to drama to comedies to opera. We can’t wait to welcome people to Pitlochry to see the fantastic work of our legendary Ensemble and the makers and creators who go on this epic summer journey with us. Hope to see you in Pitlochry in 2024!”
So what’s on offer? Dig out the dancing shoes, slap some eggs in the frying pan, and be ready to experience an explosion of fresh world première , distinct classics, and a couple of additional surprises.
The main auditorium will host two significant revivals of popular musicals Footloose, co-produced with New Wolsey Theatre and Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. Guaranteed to be big hits with the audiences these two wildly popular musicals will make a fine addition to the theatre’s good fortune with musical productions early into the run. We’d recommend grabbing tickets as early as possible, once they have been released in early October for Season Tickets or November 13th for individual shows.
For us though, the crowning jewel of the Auditorium space comes in the form of the world première of Frances Poet’s new stage adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, co-produced with OVO. And for those who missed it last year, the CATS award-winning Shirley Valentine makes a welcome return.
A birthplace of ambition and a residence to nurture new creative pieces, the Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s recently refurbished Studio space will host two premières in Harry Mould’s new production The Brenda Line, a piece on the Samaritans and the Endurance of Women. While kicking off the whole affair from May 24th, is Scotland’s Firebrand Theatre Company, in association with Dr Kerri Andrews, Nan Shepherd: Naked and Unashamed.
A touch of magic always ripples around the Theatre’s Amphitheatre, and 2024 will be no different with the return of Artistic Director Elizabeth Newman’s acclaimed adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s much-loved The Secret Garden. It was a gorgeously paced piece which fuses together live performances, stunning (though simplistic) design, and a few surprise critters. And in tremendous news for Opera lovers, Pitlochry will unite with the Scots Opera Project to produce a Gaelic and Scots Language version of Purcell’s baroque masterpiece, Dido and Aeneas.
Season ticket packages for the 2024 season will go on sale to existing Pitlochry Festival Theatre members on Monday 2 October 2023 and on general sale on Monday 9 October 2023. Individual show tickets will go on general sale from Monday 13 November. For further information on tickets and productions visit www.pitlochryfestivaltheatre.com or call 01796 484626.
Footloose
31st May- 26th September: Main Auditorium
Maintaining the tradition of a musical kicking off the main auditorium season, Dean Pitchford and Walter Bobbie’s stage adaptation of the 1984 Oscar-nominated Footloose is a damn fine way to start. This much-loved musical sensation celebrates life, love, youth, and movement and tells the story of a teenage boy (played by Kevin Bacon in the 1984 film) from Chicago who falls for the preacher’s daughter in a small farming town. The production will then transfer to the New Wolsey Theatre in October 2024.
Evening Performances (19.30pm): May 31st. June: 1st, 13th, 14th & 28th. July 13th, 16th, 24th & 30th. August 2nd, 3rd, 7th, 20th, 21st & 28th. September 5th, 10th, 17th, 21st & 25th.
Matinee Performances (14.00pm): June 13th & 29th. July 17th & 25th. August 8th & 29th. September 6ht, 11th, 22nd & 26th.
Beautiful (The Carole King Musical)
7th June-28th September: Main Auditorium
With not one but two hugely popular musicals, Pitlochry is set to bring music to the gateway of the Highlands through the summer of 2024. And in early June, a brand-new staging of the award-winning Beautiful: The Carole King Musical is already one we’re excited about.
Chartering the inspiring rise of Carole King’s remarkable career from a song-writing partner with her husband Gerry Goffin, to her relationship with fellow musicians and writers Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann, concluding in cementing King as one of the most successful soloists in popular music history.
Featuring hit after hit of iconic songs including You’ve Got a Friend, One Fine Day, Will You Love Me Tomorrow and Natural Women, this superstar musical is a gorgeously powerful piece. If you’d like to get an idea of just how marvellous a show it is, be sure to read our review of the previous touring production of the show here.
Evening Performances (19.30pm): June 7th, 8th, 11th & 27th. July 11th, 17th, 25th, 26th & 31st. August 6th, 24th & 29th. September 6th, 13th, 18th, 24th & 28th.
Matinee Performances (14.00pm): June 12th, August 1st& 25th. September 7th, 14th, 19th & 25th.
Sense & Sensibility
21st Jun-27th September: Main Auditorium
Jane Austen’s masterpiece story of two sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, and their experiences with romance, heartbreak and loss is the final new piece to open in the Pitlochry Festival Theatre Auditorium.
Teaming up with OVO to stage a world première of the marvellous Frances Poet’s Sense and Sensibility, this brilliant poetic tale of secrets, lies, seduction and suppression plays on the rigid social conventions as they collide head-on with the desires and impulses of emotion. Later in the year, Sense and Sensibility will transfer to the Roman Theatre of St Albans in July and August 2024.
Evening Performances (19.30pm): June 21st, 22nd & 25th. July 12th, 18th, 23rd & 27th. August 1st, 8th, 9th, 23rd & 30th. September 4th, 14th, 19th & 26th.
Matinee Performances (14.00pm): June 26th & 27th. July 24th. August 24th & 31st. September 5th, 20th & 27th.
Shirley Valentine
4th July – 28th September: Main Auditorium
Reprising their award-winning role in the Auditorium, Sally Reid will once more star in the much-loved Willy Russell play Shirley Valentine. This heart-warming and humorous story of a middle-aged, working-class housewife from Liverpool touches the spirits of many audiences as she decides to take the plunge and finds her life transformed after a holiday in Greece.
Evening Performances (19.30pm): July 4th, 5th, 9th & 20th. August 22nd & 27th. September 3rd, 12th, 20th & 27th.
Matinee Performances(14.00pm): July 10th & 21st. August 23rd & 28th. September 4th, 13th, 21st & 28th.
The Secret Garden
12th July – 22nd August: Amphitheatre
Artistic Director Elizabeth Newman is delighted to bring back their 2023 Amphitheatre production, The Secret Garden, to new and returning audiences in 2024.
Perfectly staged in the Theatre’s outdoor space, this firm childhood favourite finds young orphan Mary Lennox come to stay in her uncle’s grand house on the Yorkshire Moors, where she finds a host of secrets inside and out in the locked gardens.
Determined to bring joy back to the residents of the house this pleasantly charming production brings together puppetry, performance, music and gorgeous surroundings to produce a triumphant adaptation from Newman.
Afternoon Performances (14.00pm): July 12th, 13th, 18th, 20th, 27th & 31st. August 3rd, 7th, 10th, 17th & 22nd.
The Brenda Line
15th August– 18th September: The Studio
This debut play from Harry Mould, The Brenda Line is inspired by real-life events taken from their mother’s teenage life, with lesser-known elements and history of the Samaritans from the seventies and eighties.
This Studio-performed piece finds audiences in the early evening in the middle of nowhere when Karen walks into a call centre for their first night shift as the youngest Samaritan in the country. She needs to help people, and maybe knock out a best seller in the process. But what she wasn’t expecting was Anne – an elderly shift partner, and the evening’s resident ‘Brenda’.
Evening Performances (19.30pm): August 15th, 16th & 31st. September 7th.
Matinee Performances (14.00pm): August 21st. September 12th & 18th.
Nan Shepherd: Naked and Unashamed
24th May- 6th July: The Studio
Following on from the success of their podcast series, A Journey with Nan Shepard, the award-winning Firebrand Theatre Company, in co-production with Pitlochry Festival Theatre and in association with Dr. Kerri Andrews present Nan Shepard: Naked and Unashamed.
This richly entertaining, funny, and touching new piece uncovers the extraordinary woman behind the Scottish five-pound note. Directed by Richard Baron (Chicago, Heritage, The Last Witch), this new production reveals the untold story of Nan Shepard’s experiences as a hillwalker, nature lover, teacher and author – and how her masterpiece, The Living Mountain, went forgotten for so long in a drawer before revolutionising Scottish literature.
Evening Performances (19.30pm): May 24th & 25th. June 6th, 12th, 26th & 29th.
Matinee Performances (14.30pm): June 15th. July 6th.
Dido and Aeneas
31st August – 15th September: Amphitheatre
A hugely welcome addition to the Theatre’s 2024 season is the innovative Scots and Gaelic language production of Dido and Aeneas, which packs vibrant, insistent drama into a moving interpretation of the operatic and projects it out into the world from the venue’s Amphitheatre.
A co-production with The Scots Opera Project, with a composition from Henry Purcell, this story of love and separation finds the queen of Carthage, Dido, falling in love with Aeneas, a Trojan Prince. But tragically, a sorceress has a ploy to separate them through a great maelstrom, tricking Aeneas into returning home – and leaving Dido alone.
Afternoon Performances (13.00pm): August 31st. September 1st, 7th, 8th, 14th & 15th.
Evening Performances (17.00pm) August 31st. September 7th & 14th.
Season ticket packages for the 2024 season will go on sale to existing Pitlochry Festival Theatre members on Monday 2 October 2023 and on general sale on Monday 9 October 2023. Individual show tickets will go on general sale from Monday 13 November. For further information on tickets and productions visit www.pitlochryfestivaltheatre.com or call 01796 484626.
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