Starting on August 7, Pitlochry Festival Theatre will launch not one, but four months of online premières, as part of its three-year Shades of Tay project, reimagined at the start of lockdown with immediacy for these challenging times.
The series of new digitals works – titled A Love Letter to Scotland and written by an exciting lineup of Scottish playwrights and poets including Jo Clifford, Stephen Greenhorn, Peter Arnott and Frances Poet, and brought to life by the theatre’s 2020 Summer Season ensemble – will form a vital part of the theatre’s tri-daily, digital series #PFTLightHopeJoy, which launched just before lockdown began, and created to respond to the uncertain and isolating world in which we now find ourselves.
Inspired by the River Tay and its surrounding landscape – including Scotland’s multi-award-winning, world-renowned outdoor extravaganza, The Enchanted Forest, with whom these commissions are in partnership – the works will be performed as audio dramas, podcasts, short films. The cast will also perform the short works later in a live festival after the Theatre reopens.
The first piece will launch on Friday 7 August with Douglas Maxwell’s new work, Beautiful Boy and will then continue weekly until late November, with new works to look forward to from Timberlake Wertenbaker, Stephen Greenhorn, Peter Arnott, Jo Clifford, Abi Zakarian, Hannah Khalil, Chinonyerem Odimba, Daniel Bye, Oliver Emanuel, Hannah Lavery, Jenny Lindsay, Martin McCormick, Linda McLean, Michael O’Neill, Frances Poet, Dan Rebellato, Ellie Stewart and Morna Young.
More new works will appear online throughout December from Deborah McAndrew, Bert Clark, Sally Reid, Lesley Hart and May Sumbwanyambe.
Each piece will be performed by one of Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s 2020 Summer Season cast, including Kirsty Stuart and Richard Standing, whom Pitlochry Theatre fans would have seen in the hugely-acclaimed production of Brian Friel’s Faith Healer last Autumn; as well as Barbara Hockaday, and Rachael McAllister, who both made their debut in 2019.
When commissioned to write, Jo Clifford described her inspiration:
I normally live in Leith; I live in the middle of an urban landscape, and I can’t believe I’m here, out in the countryside, where I’ve ended up being isolated. What luck, how astonishing! It reminds me of living close to the sea, of a time that I spent often visiting a house that was just by the banks of the River Tay, the other side of the river from Dundee. And how enormous the volume of water was there: how impressive, how frightening it was. And I think that’s what my play is going to be about… the power of nature that has suddenly put us in this situation; it’s reminded us that nature is stronger than we are – that we do belong to the natural world. And that we also belong to each other.
Renowned playwright, Timberlake Wertenbaker explained:
An enchanted forest and a long river moving through Scotland, it’s already a kind of dream. But the notion of writing something with a forest and a river feels like a magic key in itself
All the new works will be captioned, free to access and share, and intended as gifts to those isolated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and those who feel isolated from Theatre in general.
The commissioned work for Shades of Tay is not limited to writing, with plans for bio-sculpting, a water installation, song-writing – including Tay Songs by Ball Boy, and She-Town Ballad by Lila Clements and Tarek Merchant – and for children, Ligach and the Salmon, a story by Lynda Radley, and a Beaver Ballad, written and performed by renowned playwright and sound designer, Isobel McArthur and MJ McCarthy.
All Shades of Tay commissions will première on Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s online platforms, including YouTube where all videos from the #PFTLightHopeJoy series can be followed.