Pictish play set on the River Tay to premiere on BBC Radio 3

A new play set on the River Tay will premiere on BBC Radio 3 this summer after being postponed at Pitlochry Festival Theatre.

Adventures With The Painted People, by David Greig, was originally scheduled as part of the Highland Perthshire theatre’s Shades of Tay project to be performed in July but will now be first heard on BBC Art’s Culture in Quarantine season next month.

The production tells the love story of a Roman officer who is captured by the Picts and about to be sacrificed, before being rescued by a Pictish woman.

Together, the pair flee down river from Rannoch Moor to Dundee.

Edinburgh-based writer Greig said: “Rivers are such evocative, defining features of the Scottish landscape and culture – creating borders and territories, ever-present and ever-changing, transporting people in geography and in memory.

“The Tay, in particular, is a river that means a lot to me, from its watersheds up on Rannoch Moor right down to Dundee, it’s a frontier river – I’ve run along it, swum in it, canoed it, sat by it looking for inspiration.

“Adventures With The Painted People is set on the River Tay in AD 85: it is a story of people meeting in extraordinary times, of borders being crossed, of cultures changing, and of love.

“I hope audiences, when they listen to it, will feel a shiver of connection through our shared landscape and I can’t wait for them to dive in.”

The play will premiere on Sunday June 7 at 7.30pm and is rescheduled for Pitlochry’s summer season in 2021.