Pushing boat out for Whisky world premiere

May 8 2009 by Alison Anderson, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

PITLOCHRY Festival Theatre new season opens next Friday (May 15) with the world premiere of Whisky Galore – A Musical! adapted from the novel by Compton McKenzie.

In celebration of Scotland’s Year Of Homecoming, the 2009 season Home features six plays by Scottish writers.

Whisky Galore – A Musical! is a specially commissioned work featuring an original score to conjure up both the 1940s and the sounds of the Western Isles. It is directed by Perth’s Ken Alexander.

One of the greats of Scottish theatre, J.M. Barrie’s What Every Woman Knows, opens on May 21. Directed by PFT’s artistic director John Durnin, this wry, subversive Edwardian comedy about love, life and politics whisks its characters from a Borders backwater to Westminster.

Liz Lochead’s Good Things is a warm hearted look at how a woman of a ‘certain age’ deals with being dumped by her husband in favour of a younger woman, yet keeping her dignity, sanity and sense of humour. It opens on May 28.

Muriel Spark’s The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie opens on June 4 in a revised adaptation by Jay Presson Allen, which has only been seen once before in Scotland.

Adapted by Victor Carin from Carlo Goldoni’s classic Italian farce, the fifth play to open (on July 16) is The Servant o’ Twa Maisters. Possibly the greatest of Scots language comedies, Goldoni`s masterpiece is relocated to the wynds of Edinburgh.

Simon Donald’s The Life Of Stuff completes the line-up. Would-be gangster Willie Dobie decides to celebrate the overthrow of a rival drugs baron in a run-down Glasgow warehouse. This modern crime caper opens on August 19.

This year’s ensemble has several familiar faces from recent seasons, including Perth’s Martyn James, who returns to PFT for his 22nd season; Dougal Lee returns for his eighth season; and Robin Harvey Edwards for his fifth.

Helen Logan will be welcomed back after a two year absence; Carol Ann Crawford and Alan Steele come for their second season; and local man Greg Powrie will have his seventh PFT season. Nine newcomers will join.

PFT chief executive and artistic director, John Durnin, said: “Programming a season celebrating Scottish writers on the stage has not been easy – there’s such a vast amount of wonderfully imaginative work. So while I’m delighted with the six selections we have made for the Home Season, I can’t help but also lament the absences.”