Drama for All Seasons

ARTHUR BROCKLEBANK looks ahead to Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s forthcoming drama season

PITLOCHRY FESTIVAL THEATRE playgoers are being promised “one of the most wide ranging seasons ever staged” in the thatre’s 2006 season, From Agatha Christie to Shakespeare, from Oscar Wilde to Alan Ayckbourn, and from P.G. Wodehouse to John Steinbeck, it all adds up to something to suit every kind of taste and interest.

For the first time the season’s plays have been given an overall title – ‘Questions Of Power’. As the theatre’s new brochure explains, “Every play whether comedy or drama, contemporary or period piece, casts its eye over different kinds of power and struggle between those who seem to have lost control of their own destiny and those who seem to be forever pulling the strings.”

So, what’s on offer?

Oscar Wilde’s ‘A Woman of No Importance’ sets the ball rolling on 12 May. It is a typically stylish exposé of the decadence and hypocrisy at the heart of the Victorian establishment, moving from sparkling comedy to gripping drama with elegance and panache. This will make a wonderful launch to the season.

Alan Ayckbourn has become the sine qua non of the annual Pitlochry presentations.

‘Summer Lighting,’ an adaptation from the novel of P.G. Wodehouse by Giles Havergal, begins on 18 May, and follows on from last season’s very successful presentation of ‘Kind Hearts and Coronets’. Clarence, ninth Earl of Emsworth, dotes on his famous pig, but unfortunately it goes missing mysteriously. Clarence suspects a dastardly plot!

The story involves romance and the threatened publication of rather sensitive memoirs, bringing together more than enough plot strands to ensure a hilarious single night of midsummer mayhem.

Alan Ayckbourn has become the sine qua non of the annual Pitlochry presentations. I have absolutely no complaint about this. His plays are always hugely entertaining, the plots unwind with enormous skill, and there’s always an underlying thought-provoking message intermingled with the engaging laughter.

This year selection is going to be ‘Man of the Moment.’ The Guardian’s drama critic called the play ‘one of the best things he has ever done, a bit of a masterpiece.’ A mild-mannered bank clerk, Douglas Beechey, foils an armed raid by a hardened career criminal. Seventeen years after the event, an ambitious TV journalist uncovers the now wealthy crook and succeeds in complicating things for Douglas.

It is a black comedy about fame, fortune and the media. Typically of Ayckbourn, who often makes expensive but integral demands on productions, the play requires an on-stage swimming pool! Should make quite a splash.

The Agatha Christie play is ‘Chimneys’ which, though scheduled to open in London in 1931, was never produced and lay forgotten until discovered quite recently in Canada, following which it received its premiere in 2003. This will present a rare opportunity for audiences to see the European premiere of the play by the Queen of Crime brought vividly to life.

And finally, Pitlochry presents John Steinbeck’s ‘The Grapes of Wrath’, in an adaptation by Frank Galati. It is an epic story of the Joad family’s journey across America from the dried up plains of Oklahoma to the beckoning but unattainable paradise of California, which is both a moving saga and an extraordinary evocation of rural life during the Great Depression.

Steinbeck won the Pulitzer Prize with this masterpiece. It is one of the greatest written celebrations of the dignity and endurance of the human spirit. Filmed by John Ford with Henry Fonda as Tom Joad, and now compellingly dramatised in this adaptation, such a large-scale and powerful drama of life on the land promises to be one of the highlights of the 2006 season.

If you are looking for a cracking good comedy, an intriguing murder mystery, a classic drama or a 20th century epic, Pitlochry will be the place to go for a memorable matinee or evening of quality entertainment. If you can manage a two-night stay in Pitlochry, you could see three or even four plays, or go full out for all six in a week.

Early booking for for both accommodation and theatre seats is advisable, because Pitlochry is a busy tourist venue in the summer months. Contact can be made online (web address below) or to the box office on 01796 484626. The theatre will send you this year’s brochure on request, which not only lists the plays but the myriad other activities at this venue throughout the year.

© Arthur Brocklebank, 2006

• Pitlochry Festival Theatre website