Nights out
Autumn preview: Best musicals, dance and drama
If your preference for a night at the theatre is drama and intrigue rather than song, there is a great choice of returning favourites and new productions that will leave audiences on the edge of their seats.
The Woman In Black (Theatre Royal, Glasgow, King’s Theatre, Edinburgh, Sept 6-11, Oct 12-16) is rightly described as one of the most atmospheric, unsettling and scary stage shows around. Based on Susan Hill’s acclaimed ghost story and adapted by Stephen Mallatratt, it has been playing in the West End for three decades. A lawyer obsessed with a family curse engages a sceptical young actor to help him tell his terrifying story and exorcise his fear.
Bill Kenwright’s Classic Thriller Theatre Company returns with their latest whodunit, the creepy comedy thriller The Cat And The Canary (Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Sep 13-18). This new adaptation of the murder mystery by John Willard, which inspired three movies starring big names such as Bob Hope and Honor Blackman, boasts a similarly starry cast for the stage. Screen legend Britt Ekland is joined by West End leading lady Marti Webb, Mark Jordan (PC Phil Bellamy in Heartbeat and Daz Spencer in Emmerdale), and Tracy Shaw, best known for her long-running role as Maxine Peacock in Coronation Street. Twenty years after the death of Mr West, his descendants gather at a remote mansion to learn who will inherit his vast wealth. When the heir is revealed, the heritage hunters become the hunted and a chain of macabre events begin – will they dare face the haunting presence toying with them?
The Covid Requiem (The Explorers’ Garden, Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Sep 15-18) is a new promenade production written and performed by Jo Clifford and Lesley Orr, celebrating the stories and lives of those lost in the pandemic. The Covid Requiem will not only encompass the collective experience of these times, but it will allow audience members to bring the names of their loved ones with them so they can be read aloud and commemorated by the audience, and together help them on the massive journey they face to make sense of what has happened.
Bestselling author Peter James’ Roy Grace series returns to the stage with the world premiere production of Looking Good Dead (King’s Theatre, Edinburgh, Oct 5-9) starring Eastenders’ Adam Woodyatt and Gaynor Faye, whose credits include The Syndicate, Emmerdale and
Conoration Street. Hours after picking up a memory stick on a train seat, Tom Bryce (Woodyatt) becomes a witness to murder and reporting the crime to the police only results in placing him and his family in danger. DSI Roy Grace tries to crack the case in time to save Bryce’s family, but he also has own demons to contend with.
Originally performed at A Play, A Pie And A Pint, The Signalman (Perth Theatre, Sep 23-Oct 2) tells the story of Thomas Barclay, transported back in time by 40 years to the winter’s night of 1919 when he was the signalman who sent the Edinburgh to Burntisland train on to the Tay Rail Bridge. Starring local actor Tom Mcgovern, it questions who is responsible when accidents occur and why we need somebody to blame – even if it’s ourselves.
The National Theatre of Scotland is back with a radical reimaging of the classic Henrik Ibsen play, The Enemy, about truth, power and deception, written by Kieran Hurley, screenwriter of acclaimed Scottish indie movie, Beats, and featuring an original soundtrack by Kathryn Joseph.
In a once great Scottish town, a massive redevelopment promises new prospects to its forgotten population. But when Dr Kirsten Stockmann discovers a dangerous secret, she knows she has to bring the truth to light – no matter the cost. It’s at
Beacon Arts Centre, Greenock, Oct 9, Dundee Rep Theatre, Oct 12-16, King’s Theatre, Edinburgh, Oct 20-23, Eden Court Theatre, Inverness, Oct 27-30, and Perth Theatre Nov 3-6 .
The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow (King’s Theatre, Edinburgh, Nov 8-13) features Coronation Street alumni Wendi Peters and Bill Ward as the leads in Washington Irving’s classic tale. Arriving in Sleepy Hollow as the school’s new teacher, Ichabod Crane quickly finds himself caught up in the secrets and unsettling traditions of the locals. But things are not as they seem and he is soon swept up in a dangerous mystery that has him questioning his sanity.