Knives in Hens staged in Perth

The revival of Perth Theatre continues next month with Scottish playwright David Harrower’s modern classic Knives in Hens.

Artistic director Lu Kemp will direct the Perth Theatre production, which runs in the transformed venue’s restored auditorium from Thursday, February 1 until Saturday, February 17.

With its universal themes of passion, betrayal and vengeance, Knives in Hens is now the most performed modern Scottish play internationally, after JM Barrie’s Peter Pan.

Set in a pre-industrial isolated Scottish rural community, it explores the love triangle between a nameless young woman, her ploughman husband and the hated village miller.

Ms Kemp said: “It has been my ambition to direct Knives in Hens since I saw the original production in 1995.

“The play has a way of grabbing you and not letting you go, it is absorbing, gritty, sucks you into this very small and brutal world and leaves you thinking about it for months afterwards.

“I am really looking forward to bringing it to Perth audiences, I hope it gets under their skin as much as it has got under mine.”

Knives in Hens features Jessica Hardwick, winner of the Cats (Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland) Best Newcomer Award 2014, Michael Moreland, last seen in Perth Theatre in Cinderella and Macbeth, and marks a Perth Theatre debut for Rhys Rusbatch.