Try eight new plays from comfort of home
Pitlochry Festival Theatre has grabbed digital publishing by the horns and will offer eight new original plays from leading British playwrights to people sitting at home.
In a tie up with Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum Theatre, Perthshire’s innovative theatre PFT has an online season of ‘audio-digital theatre’ planned, with new works by top names.
The Sound Stage project is being launched and will offer productions specially designed to make the best of the ‘at home theatre experience.’
Those with tickets will get ‘ushered to their virtual seat’ and even be able to chat to each other in a virtual bar during the interval.
From March to October this year, PFT’s collaboration with the Lyceum will see a succession of new offerings written by John Byrne, Mark Ravenhill, Timberlake Wertenbaker and Roy Williams to name but a few.
Investment from Creative Scotland and resilience funding from the Scottish Government has made the Sound Stage initiative possible and hopes are high that audiences - worldwide - will turn to Pitlochry and Edinburgh for entertainment and culture that they can enjoy at home.
Sound Stage promises to be “an exciting new audio-digital venture, designed by theatre makers and leading technologists, giving audiences a unique and engrossing online theatre experience” of new plays from the best in British theatre, which in the future Pitlochry Festival Theatre and the Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh hope to produce on stage.
Sound Stage will operate an online booking system for all productions. Just like booking a ticket for the theatre, audiences will be able to book ahead for a performance and time of their choice.
The first season will feature eight new co-productions.
It will open in March with the world premiere of ‘Angela,’ Mark Ravenhill’s first autobiographical play which explores the way culture high and low had impacted his mother’s life and that of his family.
Ravenhill’s previous plays include ‘Shopping and F***ing’ (Out of Joint and Royal Court Theatre) and ‘The Cut’ (Donmar Warehouse).
Elizabeth Newman, artistic director of Pitlochry Festival Theatre, said: “Pitlochry Festival Theatre is thrilled to share the news about Sound Stage.
“The original idea came from my experience last year making the audio premiere of ‘Adventures with the Painted People’ with David, Polly, and the rest of the Naked Productions team.
“The quality we could produce remotely blew me away and made me think this is how we can make great work during lockdown.
“However, this did not solve the problem of how much audiences and the theatre industry as a whole were missing the experience of going to the theatre itself and so Sound Stage was born.”
Elizabeth went on to explain how things were set to get much more immersive in future: “With Sound Stage, audience members can come together for the experience of not only listening to exceptional new audio plays written by some of the UK’s best-known playwrights, but also the experience of ‘attending’ a virtual theatre.
“From entering the theatre itself and being ushered to your seat, to meeting people in the interval and staying afterwards to listening to a post-show discussion, Sound Stage will be an exciting new theatrical experience for everyone.”
Tickets for ‘Angela’ will go on sale on Sunday, February 14.
For further information visit www. pitlochryfestivaltheatre.com