Pitlochry's 75th anniversary season is Alan Cumming's first

About this episode

The episode discusses the 75th anniversary season of Pitlochry Festival Theatre under the new artistic direction of Alan Cumming.

Pitlochry Festival Theatre in Scotland, is about to open its 75th anniversary season, its first since star of stage and screen Alan Cumming took over as Artistic Director. BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Sam Hardie, Associate Director at the theatre, who is directing a revival of Iain Heggie's Wiping My Mother's Arse , and to playwright Douglas Maxwell, whose new play Inexperience will open in June, about the new season and the ways in which the new artistic director and his predecessor, Elizabeth Newman, changed the theatre's focus. Douglas also shares the best piece of advice he was ever given about playwriting that he thinks about every day, which came from Iain Heggie. Pitlochry Festival Theatre 's 75th anniversary season opens on 23 May 2026 with a revival of the musical Once directed by John Tiffany, followed by Finn Den Hertog's production of Shakespeare's Lear starring Maureen Beattie, a revival of 2024 Edinburgh Fringe hit A History of Paper , Beckett's Happy Days starring Siobhán Redmond directed by Roxana Silbert, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie directed by Vicky Featherstone and My Fair Lady directed by Maria Friedman with Alan Cumming as Professor Higgins. In the…

People in this episode

Host: David Chadderton

Guests: Sam Hardie, Douglas Maxwell

Topics covered

• Pitlochry Festival Theatre
• Alan Cumming
• theatre season
• playwriting
• artistic direction

Keywords

• Pitlochry Festival Theatre
• Alan Cumming
• theatre
• playwriting
• Iain Heggie

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Pitlochry Festival Theatre

Books & works: Wiping My Mother's Arse, Inexperience, Once, Lear, A History of Paper, Happy Days, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, My Fair Lady

More episodes of British Theatre Guide podcast

• Unity celebrates a century of radical theatre in Liverpool · May 10, 2026 · 42 min
• Birmingham Rep returns to Shakespeare with Dream · April 28, 2026 · 20 min
• Bryony Kimmings on Bog Witch and autobiographical theatre · April 23, 2026 · 37 min
• Little Shop of Horrors in Derby and Newcastle · April 15, 2026 · 22 min
• Henry Goodman in Arthur Miller's The Price · March 20, 2026 · 42 min
• Taking Loach's I, Daniel Blake from screen to stage · March 13, 2026 · 25 min