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theatre breaks in Pitlochry, stay at the old Mill Inn,The gateway inn to the highlands.
As the seasons change, so does the programme at Pitlochry Festival Theatre and we’re delighted to be able to offer visitors to Highland Perthshire such a marvellous range of high quality shows, concerts, events and activities throughout the year. Winter 2006/07 And what better way to kick start the Year Of Highland Culture than by joining us for our four day literature festival, Winter Words, which returns in January. Packed with internationally renowned authors and literary stars such as Magnus Magnusson, John Simpson, Kathleen Jamie and James Robertson, this is the place, “where Scotland’s Literary year gets into gear” New for this year, we plan to ‘stage’ a unique Festival Casino Night. This fundraising evening will begin with a sparkling reception followed by close up card tricks as you play professional croupier tables, or enjoy musical entertainment. You might even spot some familiar faces amongst the crowd... Music lovers will delight in the return of The Locrian Ensemble with Carols by Candlelight, Katzenjammer and R3 Tenors. The Cotton Club Revue and Tony Jacobs Frank Sinatra Tribute will ensure this season goes with a swing! Take An Active Role Winter Words FestivalJan 25th - 28th There’s a distinctly Scottish feel to our Winter Words Festival for 2007, which is set to banish those winter blues with a host of events to warm the cockles of your book-loving heart! Two of Scotland’s greatest writers talk about their work: William McIlvanney reads from his outstanding latest novel, Weekend, while James Robertson, long listed for the Booker Prize with The Testament of Gideon Mack, regales us with his passions for the Scots language, Scottish history and writing. Guy Grieve gave up his day job and, with no prior experience, set off to live alone through an Alaskan winter. He built a cabin, trained a dog team, trapped beaver and hunted game birds, fell through ice, faced-down moose and bears, nearly starved to death and feared for his sanity. He survived - and is here to tell us his extraordinary tale . . Take a bite out of two of Scotland’s best culinary gurus: Mary Contini, of Edinburgh’s Valvona & Crolla and Shirley Spear, owner of Skye’s Three Chimneys who have both taken Scotland’s cuisine by storm. Join award-wining journalist John Simpson on Friday evening when he discusses his memoir, Days from a Different World, painting a vivid picture of Britain in the 1940s and his own troubled childhood. Hot from the Edinburgh Festival is Puppet State Theatre’s new production, The Man Who Planted Trees. An adaptation of Jean Giono’s much-loved tale about a shepherd who transforms a desolate region by planting hundreds of thousands of trees, it was acclaimed by The Scotsman: “It is very, very rare to find something that appeals as effortlessly to children and adults as this magical show”. Next year Scotland celebrates the Year of Highland Culture 2007. To get us in the mood, the entire Winter Words Sunday programme will be dedicated to all things Scottish and will include poet Kathleen Jamie, whose travel book Findings is an extraordinary evocation of the Scottish landscape; historians James Robertson and Michael Fry, who will reflect on the question of contemporary Scottish identity; novelist and broadcaster Carl MacDougall, whose energetic television programmes have revitalised the debate on the Scots language. And to round the day off, there will be a live Any Questions? event, with some very well-kent faces on the panel - Richard Holloway and John Swinney MSP amongst others. . . The choice in today’s bookshops is almost bewildering. Jamie Jauncey, novelist, children’s author and creative writing expert, will host introductions to newly published writers so you can taste before you buy. With workshops on fiction as well as poetry, you can also learn more about the writing process. The Book Fair will yet again take over the Foyer throughout the festival, with a wide range of both new and second hand books available to buy, covering both specialist and general topics. Oh, and if we’re very, very lucky, there might even be An Audience With Ronnie Corbett thrown in for good measure . . .
Here is the history of the theatre.When in 1944 two men visited Pitlochry, who could tell what the next five decades would bring and how John Stewart's vision would be achieved and subsequently developed.Stewart at that time was a director of the then well-known commercial college, Skerry's, but he also had a strong interest in theatre which stemmed from his association with the amateur 'Curtain Theatre'. A group that had encouraged such talents as Duncan Macrae and Robert McLellan. This interest led him to establish the Park Theatre Club in Glasgow's West End in 1941. Dubbed 'Glasgow's First Little Theatre' it grew in stature to the point of having a fully professional cast by the time it closed in 1949, when, at the height of its success but with no prospect of a larger theatre being built in Glasgow, Stewart reluctantly 'shut the doors'. Stewart declared somewhat obliquely in his final curtain speech -'Glasgow's loss will be Scotland's gain'. It was again to Pitlochry that he looked, the romantic in him having concealed a slip of paper in a wayside post on this side of the River Tummel during the war. 'When peace is declared I shall return to this spot to give thanks to God and to establish my Festival'. On V/E day Stewart recovered that same slip of paper, spoke his silent prayer beneath the open sky and vowed again to fulfil his promise. A site at Knockendarroch beckoned. But 1949 was during a period of rationing of all building materials. Licences were needed from the Ministry of Works, who would issue them for essential building purposes only. So it was that the fledgeling theatre company had also to apply. Despite a vigorous Press campaign justifying their requirements on the grounds that tourism would benefit, dollars would be earned, the theatre would be an asset to Scotland, and that, anyway, the money to be spent was John Stewart's, the request was refused. With this setback Stewart turned to the idea of a tent theatre, visiting the wet weather tent in London's Regent Park and that of Birmingham's Arena Theatre for inspiration and advice. Both companies had their tents from the same maker in Walsall, from whom after consultation on design, Stewart bought one. With the support of Tom Johnston, chairman of the Scottish Tourist Board, the Ministry finally capitulated and permission was given for a little steel and a little timber, so that the tent theatre could be completed. And so finally, on the 19th of May 1951, Pitlochry Festival Theatre opened with the British premiere of Maxwell Anderson's Mary of Scotland, with Joss Ackland as Darnley. In his opening address Johnston said, 'This theatre is a monument to one man's courage, one man's persistence, and one man's great faith'1952 brought unexpected trouble. A storm broke in August which ripped the tent canvas right to the top of one of the king poles, thus compounding the theatre's financial plight. The loss for the first season had been £12,000 and £5,000 for the second, causing Stewart's accountant to warn him of possible bankruptcy if things continued on their present course. After due consideration, solace and advice was sought from an old friend, James Shaw Grant, editor of the Stornoway Gazette and later to be Chairman of the Board of governors. Today the solution to John Stewart's problem seems obvious. But then it required adaptability and considerable self-sacrifice. He decided to form a non-profit distributing society, along the same lines as the Scottish National Orchestra Society. In so doing, he handed over his house, grounds, workshops and what was left of the tent theatre as a gift to the society. In return he was appointed Festival Director, with the right to live in what had been his own home. His General Manager - Kenneth Ireland, with whom he had visited Pitlochry on that original visit of 1944, was appointed company secretary. Support from the Arts Council to the tune of £250 for each of two plays - The Rivals and The importance Of Being Earnest helped the theatre to end the 1953 season with a surplus of £1000 and a new feeling of confidence. It was during the early part of that year work began on a new, much modified and improved theatre - the result of a special building appeal. The new structure was a rectangular steel framework, clad with asbestos, inside which the inner framework of the tent theatre was re-erected to form an auditorium capable of seating 500, together with bars and a delicatessen buffet. Although this new building was to be semi-permanent, and it served well both audience and cast alike, thoughts would begin in earnest at the beginning of the seventies, to find a suitable permanent location worthy of Pitlochry's Festival Theatre. As had been the case so often in the past, the path was not to be an easy one. James Shaw Grant at the 1975 AGM of the Society is minuted as saying, 'I cannot gloss over Pitlochry's fundamental problem which, regrettably, still remains the replacement of its now superannuated theatre building -however charming it may still look. All I can say today is that the Governors have waited as long as they dared to secure a site offered to them but for which planning clearance is subject to a decision being made on the line of the proposed Pitlochry by-pass. We have now waited for three years, time has run out and inflation has torn into our carefully prepared plans'.In fact some 14 sites had either been considered or looked at out of desperation before a start was made on this site at Port-na-Craig, where the foundation stone was laid in September '79 by Lord Home of the Hirsel. The new theatre's opening performance of Storm in a Teacup was given on the 19th of May 1981, the 30th anniversary of the very first performance in John Stewart's tent.
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The Pitlochry Festival Theatre hosts its annual programme of top-notch theatre, in the midst of some of Scotland's most spectacular scenery.