Pauline McLeanScotland arts correspondent
Tommy Ga-Ken Wan
Alan Cumming promised he would be the Pied Piper of Pitlochry
Alan Cumming promised he would be the Pied Piper of Pitlochry, bringing the world to the Perthshire town and the work of its theatre to the world.
And the 60-year-old Scottish actor and TV presenter found that his friends in the business didn’t take much persuading.
“There were many challenges but actually it wasn’t that hard,” he says.
“People are so excited by the idea of coming to this beautiful place in the Highlands and getting away from everything to make new work.
“People actually reached out to me, some quite big names like Ian McKellen who emailed and said, ‘Can I come’?
“I said, ‘Sure Ian, yes, what have you got?’.”
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Sir Ian McKellen asked if he could come to Pitlochry
the veteran Lord of The Rings star is coming to Pitlochry in January as part of the standalone Out in the Hills Festival.
He will star in Equinox, a rehearsed reading of the brand new one-man play by Laurie Slade and directed by Sean Mathia.
Out in the Hills also welcomes Armistead Maupin, Evelyn Glennie and Graham Norton who, like McKellen, had hoped to appear on Pitlochry’s stage many decades earlier.
Norton has previously admitted it was his first audition on leaving drama school, one of a number of theatre jobs he didn’t get.
Pitlochry Festival Theatre
Those performing in the Out In The Hills weekend will include Ian McKellen, Graham Norton and Mhairi Black
Cumming, who grew up in nearby Aberfeldy, had never visited the theatre either.
But he says he takes inspiration from its founder John Stewart who visited in 1944 and vowed to return when the war was over and build a theatre.
With rationing affecting building materials, he had to settle for a tented venue for the first few years.
“I’ve been thinking about that as I’ve made this season happen,” Cumming says.
“He came here and he was as mesmerised by Pitlochry, as was I, and he manifested this incredible thing.
“And I think I’ve manifested – hopefully – an incredible thing but certainly a big change and new ideas.”
Tommy Ga-Ken Wan
Cumming says he takes inspiration from the theatre’s founder John Stewart
One of the biggest changes has been dispensing with the repertory system, which involved a troupe of actors performing six plays across the summer season.
“When I came here, what I wanted to do was to bring in people and to use this place as a sort of a nursery to make really great work and then take it elsewhere,” Cumming says.
“And in order to do that, I knew that the structure of the rep system with a six or seven-month commitment wouldn’t work with the people I was asking to come.
“So when I started the job, I said I’d like to do it, but it was predicated on changing the system of working.
“It’s just not financially viable in the way that theatre works these days.”
Fraser Band
Pitlochry Theatre was founded by John Stewart who visited the area in 1944 and then returned when the war was over and built a theatre
But there are familiar elements, like the elaborate stage sets, designed and made on site, which traditionally merit a round of applause from the audience.
Cumming, who is best known for shows such as Traitors US, The Good Wife and Schmigadoon, says: “It opens up many more opportunities.
“The sets always had to be able to be packed up and changed over between an afternoon and an evening performance but now a set will go up and it will stay up for a month.
“I know it’s a big change and I am aware that I’m asking people to go on a journey with me.
“But I feel the energy and excitement that people have in the building and in the town and in Scotland in general.”
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Alan Cumming has won awards for presenting the US version of The Traitors
Another staple is the musical, which began in 2009 with Whisky Galore, and the new season promises not one but three musical shows including the Scottish premiere of Once, based on the 2007 film about musicians in Dublin recording an album.
“That’s a big coup,” Cumming says.
“Many theatres have tried to get that show.
“And John Tiffany and Stephen Hoggett, who I’ve done many things with over the years, made it for Broadway and in London.
“And now they’re coming here with the original creative team.”
Cumming – who won a Tony award for reviving his role as the Emcee in Cabaret on Broadway in 1998 – will appear as Henry Higgins in a new production of My Fair Lady.
“I have actually have been in My Fair Lady before at the Carnoustie Musical Society in 1981 when I played Colonel Pickering,” he says.
“And 45 years later Colonel Pickering is still the oldest person I’ve ever played.”
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Cumming will be reunited with Scottish actress Shirley Henderson for The History of Paper
He’ll also be reunited with Shirley Henderson for The History of Paper, which will later travel to New York.
The duo have just finished filming roles in Brian Cox’s directorial debut Glenrothan, more than 40 years after they appeared together in the Scottish Television drama Shadow of the Stone.
But there’s another actress who provided an even earlier inspiration.
“When I was a little boy and I was at Monikie Primary School, a theatre and education company from Dundee Rep came to visit with a play about the Highland Clearances which they performed in the dinner hall,” Cumming says.
“I saw them through the playground fence and I watched them putting their baskets of props and things into the van and going off to the next school.
“I remember thinking, I want to do that.
“One of the actors in that show changed my life.
“I’m now an actor because of that.”
The actor was Maureen Beattie who will star in a reimagined King Lear.
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Cumming has admired Maureen Beattie since he was at school
It’s another example of the mixture of new and traditional offerings which he hopes will win over new audiences as well as retaining existing ones.
“I don’t want to scare people,” Cumming says.
“I want to make sure that everybody who’s come before feels welcome and feels that there’s stuff for them.
“But also I want to invite new people to come along as well.
“I want this theatre to be sort of seen as an international destination for theatre goers and for artists.”
Cumming is already planning for 2027 – and has plenty of ideas of people he’d want to approach and shows he’d like to stage.
But for now, he’s happy to announce his first season and let audiences decide for themselves whether it’s worth making the trip to Scotland’s theatre in the hills.
