Carousel • Thark • Gameplan • Flatspin • Roleplay This Happy Breed • Hard Times Para Handy • Scrooge - the Musical
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SCOTLAND’S THEATRE IN THE HILLS MAY - DECEMBER 2016 Carousel • Thark • GamePlan • FlatSpin • RolePlay This Happy Breed • Hard Times Para Handy • Scrooge - The Musical “The stylistic equivalent of a West End producing theatre set against a picture- postcard backdrop of rolling Perthshire hills” The Herald at Scotland’s favourite theatre – one which promises to be the most exciting of recent years! For the first time since 1996, the unique Alongside this musical masterpiece, we Jeffreys’ adaptation of Dickens’Hard rounding off the year at PFT will be the British theatrical phenomenon that is have the first UK revival since its 2002 Times, a thrilling story of betrayal and quintessential festive musical: Leslie PFT’s Summer Season will contain seven première of Ayckbourn’s extraordinary sacrifice set in 1840s Lancashire. Bricusse’s Scrooge, a snowy Victorian shows: so this year, you’ll be able to stay Damsels In Distress trilogy: three Christmas treat for all the family! Information about other events and six days and see seven plays! completely different modern comedies, activities during the Summer Season, With everything from modern comedy including Sunday concerts, brand new to period drama to musicals on offer Opening this festival of theatre will be the first Active Arts workshops, our ever popular throughout 2016 - all staged to the tours and talks, and the Explorers remarkably high production standards Rodgers & Hammerstein musical ever to be staged Garden (newly endorsed by the Royal for which PFT is renowned - there is at PFT, the much-loved, deeply moving Carousel Horticultural Society!), plus details of the bound to be something here to suit many places to stay in Pitlochry, from every taste. So we hope that you’ll be “ B&Bs to 5 star boutique hotels, can also eager to join us for some or all of the The Summer Season will feature two but all performed on the same set by be found in this brochure. productions on offer at Scotland’s Most very special theatrical events. Opening the same seven actors. There are even Welcoming Theatre (our most recent Moving into the Autumn, we’re this festival of theatre will be the first two special Trilogy Days, when you can accolade in the 2015 UK Theatre Awards) ” delighted to be staging only the second- Rodgers & Hammerstein musical ever see all three plays in a single day! during another great year at the Theatre ever production of Para Handy, John to be staged at PFT, the much-loved, in the Hills! The Season also includes Clive Francis’ Bett’s marvellous adaptation of a deeply moving Carousel, which follows acclaimed 2013 “revision” of Thark, selection of Neil Munro’s iconic stories – John Durnin in the footsteps of PFT’s sell-out Ben Travers’ hilarious haunted house complete with its own ceilidh band! And Chief Executive & Artistic Director productions of Kiss Me, Kate, My Fair farce; a rare revival of Noël Coward’s Lady and Hello, Dolly! classic family drama of the inter-war years, This Happy Breed; and Stephen • For visually impaired visitors, we have an Access All Areas audio description service which can be Scotland’s Most Welcoming • Disabled parking is reserved near the main provided for any performance, as long as Box Theatre, 2015 entrance. Office are given prior notice. • Wheelchair users can access all facilities. • Also for visually impaired visitors, we A courtesy wheelchair can also be booked endeavour to arrange touch tours before a in advance. There are four spaces for performance (subject to availability). wheelchair users in the auditorium. • Guide dogs, hearing dogs and dogs for the • For those with impaired hearing, an induction disabled are very welcome. Please advise the loop is available. Personal sound amplifiers Box Office in advance if you’re bringing are also available and can be booked your dog. in advance. Pitlochry Festival Theatre is a Company Limited by Guarantee Registered in Scotland Number SC029243 at the address below. • Scottish Charity Number SC013055 • Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Pitlochry, PH16 5DR • Administration: 01796 484600 • Box Office: 01796 484626 • Email: boxoffice@ PitlochryFestivalTheatre.com • Website: www.PitlochryFestivalTheatre.com 01 Stay 6 Days, See 7 Plays Carousel Music by Richard Rodgers Book & Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II “Jest keep yer faith and courage, and you’ll come out all right. It’s like what we used to sing when I went to school. ‘When you walk through a storm keep yer chin up high . ’ Know thet one?” New England, 1873: when a travelling problems, Billy doesn’t take much carnival pitches up in a small fishing persuading. But the robbery goes village, an unlikely relationship develops horribly wrong - and Billy ends up risking between the charismatic carousel not only his life, but also his immortal barker, Billy Bigelow, and Julie Jordan, soul . a naïve local mill worker. Within weeks A dramatic testament to the enduring - and against everyone’s advice - the power of love, Carousel is Rodgers & seemingly ill-matched lovers are Hammerstein’s towering achievement. married. Featuring a large cast and live orchestra, But Billy’s fiery temper quickly causes PFT’s flagship production for 2016 problems for the newly-weds. After promises unforgettable musical losing his job, Billy begins to feel entertainment, including June Is Bustin’ hemmed in by the constraints of Out All Over, If I Loved You, Mr. Snow married life. And his financial difficulties and, of course, the heart-rending You’ll quickly mount. The discovery that he Never Walk Alone. is soon to be a father only intensifies If you enjoyed our previous productions Billy’s need to find some cash – and fast. of Broadway classics, such as My Fair So when Billy’s friend, the shady sailor Lady, Hello, Dolly! and Kiss Me, Kate, Jigger, suggests that robbing the local you’ll love this! mill owner could solve all of Billy’s “Sparkling lyrics and ravishing score.” The Telegraph “Rodgers’ score is a seamless delight. And Hammerstein’s lyrics are, arguably, his very best.” The Guardian Sponsored by Dunard Fund 01796 484626 | PitlochryFestivalTheatre.com 03 Stay 6 Days, See 7 Plays Thark by Ben Travers adapted by Clive Francis “I do wish you’d stop calling it that. Besides, it isn’t haunted. It’s just unlived in. Ridiculous to call it haunted.” Things are looking up for sporting, Hector manages to talk his way out of man-about-town, Sir Hector Benbow . the, er, marital misunderstanding. But it seems that the only way to convince Not only has he finally managed to Mrs. Frush not to renege on the house offload his gloomy country pile, Thark, purchase is for the Benbows to decamp onto an unsuspecting buyer, but he’s to Thark - and prove that it is untainted also caught the eye of the beautiful by the supernatural. Cherry Buck. And while his wife is away visiting friends, Hector plans a romantic But Thark – a very strange house, liaison à deux. inhabited by an even stranger butler and several things that go bump in the Unfortunately, Lady Benbow returns night – has other plans . home unexpectedly - and Hector has to act fast. Helped by Ronny, his plucky Ben Travers’s classic 1927 Aldwych nephew, Cherry is passed off as Mrs. farce, in a glorious new version by Clive Frush, the new owner of Thark - only for Francis, is fast-paced, rip-roaring and the real Mrs. Frush to suddenly turn up, hilariously inventive: perfect Summer complaining that the house she bought entertainment! If See How They Run! or in good faith turns out to be haunted . Noises Off tickled your fancy, don’t miss this! “A joyous evening” The Guardian “Wonderfully funny” “Pure joy to watch” The Daily Telegraph The Times 01796 484626 | PitlochryFestivalTheatre.com 05 Stay 6 Days, See 7 Plays GamePlan by Alan Ayckbourn “They say you can buy just about anything on the internet, these days, don’t they?” Sorrel Saxon has a pretty wonderful life: online, of course - as a provider of . she attends a posh private school and ahem . “adult services” . lives in a smart Docklands apartment, Roping in her gawky best friend, this enviable lifestyle made possible by Kelly, to assist, Sorrel prepares to her parents’ lucrative online business. entertain her first client. But dabbling Yes, a pretty wonderful life . in ‘the oldest profession’ is never Until, that is, Sorrel’s father walks out, straightforward. And Sorrel’s plan the family business collapses, her falls apart before it even starts. And mother Lynette has to take a cleaning when the police knock at the door job and there’s no money to pay the investigating a suspected murder, school fees. Then Sorrel is faced with changing schools is the least of Sorrel’s the prospect of bidding her wonderful problems . life farewell and moving to somewhere The first play in Ayckbourn’s dazzling more affordable. Like Birmingham . Damsels In Distress trilogy, GamePlan Appalled, Sorrel decides that she has is a sharp, contemporary black comedy to arrest her family’s downward spiral. of metropolitan morals and mishaps. Unfortunately, her plan to turn things If you enjoyed Communicating Doors, around involves reinventing herself - you’ll love this! “ . bold running gags . one must give thanks that Ayckbourn is still knocking them out after all these years.” The Daily Telegraph “ . constantly entertaining “absorbing and entertaining” and alert.” The Scotsman on The Sunday Times Communicating Doors, 2012 Each play in this trilogy is an entirely separate, stand-alone story, featuring completely different characters. Uniquely, however, all three plays share the same actors - and the same set! 01796 484626 | PitlochryFestivalTheatre.com 07 Stay 6 Days, See 7 Plays FlatSpin by Alan Ayckbourn “This is a – what do you call it – a sting.” The things actors have to do when But dinner doesn’t quite go to plan.