The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Festival Theatre stars revved up for packed new summer season
Faces old and new to put on shows from writers ranging from JM Barrie to Tom Stoppard
Pitlochry Festival Theatre has taken the wraps off its action-packed summer schedule.
Hit musical Chicago will be among the highlights of the popular Perthshire venue’s 2018 season.
The new, 17-strong acting ensemble also promise shows by renowned writers including JM Barrie and Tom Stoppard.
The cast gathered at the venue to celebrate the imminent start of the new season.
Among the returning faces will be Helen Logan, who has appeared in a remarkable 40 productions over 12 seasons.
Helen, who has twice won the theatre’s Leon Sinden Award, is best known to local audiences for her roles in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Whisky
Among the new faces this year is Irene MyrtleForrester, fresh from West End performances of the Lion King and Hairspray among others
Galore and most recently Scrooge! and Carousel.
Alan Steele will make a welcome return as Douglas Begg in Rona Munro’s The Last Witch, the story of the last woman to be executed for witchcraft in Britain. The play is based on the historical account of Janet Horne, the alleged witch of Dornoch in the Highlands, who was executed in 1727.
Mr Begg will also play Lenin in Stoppard’s Travesties, a drama set in Zurich during World War I which takes in James Joyce’s Ulysses and the rise of the Dada movement.
Among the new faces this year is Irene Myrtle-Forrester, fresh from West End performances of the Lion King and Hairspray, among others. She will play the role of Matron “Mama” Morton in Chicago.
The musical, which features newcomer Laura Costello as Annie, is based on the book by Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse which was turned into the 2002 Oscarwinning movie.
The new season gets under way with Chicago on Friday, May 25, closely followed by Jim Cartwright’s poignant musical comedy The Rise and Fall of Little Voice on May 31.
This year’s line-up, supported by Perth and Kinross Council and Creative Scotland, also features Quality Street by JM Barrie and Before the Party by Rodney Ackland, based on a short story by Somerset Maugham.