Elizabeth Newman Archives - North West End UK

Artistic Director Elizabeth Newman talks about the new season at Pitlochry Festival Theatre

27Apr

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Interviews

Artistic Director Elizabeth Newman talks about the new season at Pitlochry Festival Theatre

Since taking over at Pitlochry Festival Theatre Elizabeth Newman has delivered some really exciting work as their Artistic Director, as well as working round a multi-million pounds refurbishment of the Perthshire venue. The new look theatre now has a main auditorium, a studio space where they can try out new work and even an outdoor amphitheatre where customers take a punt on the Scottish weather. They've recruited a 20 strong ensemble of actors for their new season, which includes a world premiere of a new Peter Arnott play, A Streetcar Named Desire, Noel Coward's Brief Encounter and a long awaited revival of Broadway classic Gypsy in May. Our Features Editor Paul Clarke spoke to Elizabeth Newman ahead of the new season. Astonishingly it's been 20 years since there's been a prod...

Sunshine on Leith – King’s Theatre, Edinburgh

9Jun

By Nazaret RaneaNo Comments

Scotland

Sunshine on Leith – King’s Theatre, Edinburgh

Just before closing for renovations, the iconic King’s theatre is lifting its curtain to David Shrusbsole’s latest version of Sunshine on Leith, an essential musical by Scottish playwright Stephen Greenhorn which was first performed in 2007 and subsequently adapted to the big screen in 2013. Directed by the harmonious tandem of Elizabeth Newman & Ben Occhipinti, this time it is the well established Pitlochry Festival Theatre in collaboration with Capital Theatre to bring this renovated version of the play to the Scottish capital. In essence, Sunshine on Leith is an open love letter to Edinburgh. By using memorable songs from the Proclaimers-Scotland’s most beloved twins-it manages to tell a universal story of belonging and finding your place in the world. In Newman’s words: “[Su...

Donald and Benoit are at Pitlochry Festival Theatre this Christmas

26Nov

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

NEWS

Donald and Benoit are at Pitlochry Festival Theatre this Christmas

Pitlochry Festival Theatre and Prime Theatre are staging new audio play Donald and Benoit as their Christmas treat. This whimsical and musical tale for children tells the tale an unlikely friendship between a man and a cat that has been brought to vivid life by playwright John Patrick Byrne and adapted by award winning theatre maker Jeanine Byrne. Benoit lives a life of mundane ordinariness in his Scottish seaside town, but he is feeling very lonely with no mother and his father lost at sea. Enter Donald, a small and mischievous kitten, to cheer him up. Sound Stage is a 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...

David Greig’s new play Adventures with the Painted People gets its stage premiere

9May

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

NEWS

David Greig’s new play Adventures with the Painted People gets its stage premiere

David Greig’s new play Adventures with the Painted People which started life as a radio play makes its stage debut at Pitlochry Festival Theatre. It was first commissioned as part of Pitlochry’s cancelled 2020 season and subsequently became a radio play on BBC Radio 3. Now it’s set to have its world stage première from 10th June to 4th July in the theatre’s outdoor amphitheatre as part of their Summer Season. Greig’s first new play since 2013’s The Events will be directed by Pitlochry’s Artistic Director Elizabeth Newman, and is a love story exploring the value of history and the power of writing. Lucius is a cultured Roman officer captured by the Picts and about to be sacrificed. Eithne is a wise Pictish woman, who wants to record her people's history in writing - a skill...

Tennis Elbow – Pitlochry Festival Theatre and Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh

2May

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

REVIEWS

Tennis Elbow – Pitlochry Festival Theatre and Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh

The good folk of the Nitshill Writing Circle have gathered together to eulogise the life of writer and painter Pamela Crichton Capers, but the conceit of John Byrne’s first play for 13 years is that their late mentor’s career is one of utter mediocrity at best. This is a companion piece with a gender twist to Byrne’s seventies hit show Writer’s Cramp that explored the life of another mediocrity Frances Seneca McDade. Fans of that earlier work will relish his fleeting appearances in this radio play produced by Pitlochry Festival Theatre and Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh as part of their Sound Stage season. Byrne traces Pam’s life story from her early days as a pretentious schoolgirl in a crummy religious boarding school where we are treated to one of her dreadful poems, and the veteran pl...

Pitlochry Festival Theatre to reopen with exciting outdoor Summer Season

19Mar

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

Pitlochry Festival Theatre to reopen with exciting outdoor Summer Season

• Pitlochry Festival Theatre to welcome audiences again with outdoor Summer Season of stage premieres, concerts, new adaptations, and family entertainment • 2021 will be the 70th anniversary Summer Season at Pitlochry Festival Theatre • Season to be performed in newly built 80-seater outdoor amphitheatre in the grounds of Pitlochry Festival Theatre • Season to feature Stage premiere of David Greig’s new play Adventures with the Painted People • New works from leading Scottish playwrights including a new adaptation of Jekyll and Hyde by Hannah Lavery and Jo Clifford and Lesley Orr’s new promenade production Requiem which will see the two celebrated playwrights devise a ceremony which will mourn and celebrate the lives of those lost during the pandemic and support the process of...

Strong casts announced for next three Sound Stage Productions

22Feb

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

Strong casts announced for next three Sound Stage Productions

Pitlochry Festival Theatre and The Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh in association with Naked Productions have announced three more strong casts for their forthcoming Sound Stage plays. Sound Stage will premiere Tennis Elbow, the new comedy from playwright and artist John Byrne, the creator of the BAFTA award-winning BBC television series Tutti Frutti, and the critically acclaimed plays The Slab Boys Trilogy. The new play, running from 30th April – 2nd May, will be Byrne’s first for 13 years, and is the follow up to his acclaimed 1977 debut play Writer’s Cramp. It’s a bittersweet comedy about the life and work of a mischievous lost artist trying to make her way in the world. Directed by Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s Artistic Director Elizabeth Newman, Tennis Elbow’s exciting cast wi...

Mark Ravenhill’s new play is the highlight of Sound Stage

14Jan

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

Mark Ravenhill’s new play is the highlight of Sound Stage

Pitlochry Festival Theatre, The Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh in collaboration with Naked Productions have created Sound Stage featuring a new play by Mark Ravenhill. This new immersive audio digital theatre experience has hit the jackpot with the world premiere of Ravenhill’s, Angela, as he offers his first autobiographical play exploring the way culture high and low impacted his mother’s life and that of his family. The season kicking off on 26th March will premiere eight new co-productions from Pitlochry Festival Theatre and Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh written by Roy Williams, Timberlake Wertenbaker, and Tutti Frutti writer John Byrne. “The original idea came from my experience last year making the audio premiere of Adventures with the Painted People with David, Polly, and...

The Magic of Christmas – Pitlochry Festival Theatre

11Dec

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

Scotland

The Magic of Christmas – Pitlochry Festival Theatre

Perhaps the biggest nightmare for theatreland through the pandemic has been the loss of the lucrative festive shows they use to subsidise their riskier offerings during the year. So, like so many venues the team at Pitlochry Festival Theatre have been forced to offer their seasonal production online, which in all honesty is no replacement for the sheer joy of sitting in a theatre full of overexcited kids with adults in tow keen to relive their youth - all secretly hoping things will go wrong. It may be no substitute, but a four strong cast deliver a charming half hour show in the theatre’s garden as hapless elves Hari and Lari smash the fourth wall inviting cyber viewers to join a journey as they seek the missing North Star that guides Santa as he gives every kid in the world a pres...

Casting announced for Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s The Magic of Christmas

30Nov

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

Casting announced for Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s The Magic of Christmas

Pitlochry Festival Theatre in partnership with the Macrobert Arts Centre have today announced the casting for their forthcoming filmed Christmas production of The Magic of Christmas. The production’s exciting cast will feature singer and actress Clare Grogan (Gregory’s Girl, Barefoot in the Park, Pitlochry Festival Theatre and Royal Lyceum Edinburgh and lead singer of iconic Scottish band, Altered Images) as Mrs Claus, Colin McCredie (DC Stuart Fraser in Taggart and Nick Morrison in River City) as Santa, Barbara Hockaday (North and South and Summer Holiday, Pitlochry Festival Theatre) as Lari and Ali Watt (A Christmas Carol and The Monarch of the Glen, Pitlochry Festival Theatre) as Hari. As the journey begins, our favourite Christmas elves Lari and Hari have a big problem! The chee...