As Scotland’s theatre season moves into spring, a mix of old and new works packs the schedules across the country, with a potent mix of comedy, tragedy, musicals and high drama at play to keep audiences enthralled.
The High Life: The Musical – Still Living It!
Dundee Rep until 4 April; Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, 7-11 April; His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen, 14-18 April; Eden Court, Inverness, 29 April-May 2; Theatre Royal, Glasgow, 12-23 May.
To some, putting a short-lived thirty-year-old sit-com onstage may not be the sort of classic fare one has in mind when one thinks of a national theatre’s repertoire. Then again, the National Theatre of Scotland’s staging of Alan Cumming and Forbes Masson’s camp in-flight fare has reunited Cumming, Masson and fellow original cast members Siobhan Redmond and Patrick Ryecart for what promises to be a mid-air romp in a show co-created with the mighty Johnny McKnight. Co-produced by the NTS with Dundee Rep in association with Aberdeen Performing Arts and Capital Theatres Edinburgh, audiences are advised to buckle up and enjoy the ride.
What I’m Here For
Tron Theatre, Glasgow until 4 April; Dundee Rep, 9-11 April; Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, 15-18 April.
This brand new show by Glasgow based internationalists Vanishing Point sees director Matthew Lenton and the team behind their hit show, Confessions of a Shinagawa Monkey join forces with Denmark’s Teater Katapult for a new play by Josephine Eusebius that focuses on a nurse called Flora, who is caught in the crossfire of a health system in freefall and pressure from all sides. Already seen in Denmark prior to this short Scottish tour, Eusebius’s text blends with Vanishing Point’s cool cinematic style to make something suitably mesmeric.
Jack Docherty in The Chief – No Apologies
Eden Court, Inverness, 4 April; the Gaiety Theatre, Ayr, 9 April; Cumbernauld Theatre, 10 April; Byre Theatre, St Andrews, 11 April; Corran Halls, Oban, 16 April; Webster Memorial Theatre, Arbroath, 17 April; Carnegie Hall, Dunfermline, 18 April; Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, 22-24 April; Dundee Rep, 30 April, then touring until June.
Jack Docherty brings an extended version of his Edinburgh Festival Fringe hit show featuring the breakout character of mock doc sit-com, Scot Squad, to a town near you. As the Chief tackles the issues of the day including the perils of diversity, the protocols of managing protest around visiting American dignitaries, the creative possibilities of AI, and the never-ending war on drugs, Docherty confesses not quite all with an air of what the Herald described after the show’s Glasgow International Comedy Festival gig as ‘Masonic fruitiness.’ Hail to the Chief.
I, Daniel Blake
Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, 7-11 April.
Dave Johns’ stage version of Ken Loach’s 2016 film returns for this latest tour to bring home the full force of life on the margins after the title character has to navigate a Kafkaesque benefits system after suffering a heart attack. Forming an alliance with a young single mother, Dan becomes a working class hero in a show produced by Newcastle’s Northern Stage company in association with Leeds Playhouse that the Herald called ‘a devastating rendering of how we live now.’
The Shawshank Redemption
His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen, 7-11 April.
More Dave Johns here by way of his stage version of Stephen King’s 1982 prison set novella, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, co-written with Owen O’Neill. The duo’s adaptation was first seen on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe run in 2013, and sources King’s fiction rather than the 1994 film version. This latest tour sees Joe McFadden star as Andy Dufresne, a 1940s banker banged up for a long stretch after being convicted for killing his wife and her lover in a tense tale of surviving the penal system against all odds in a production described by the Herald as ‘a slow burning study of what it means to truly escape.’
Medea
The Lemon Tree, Aberdeen, 8 April; Lyth Arts Centre, Wick, 10 April; Eden Court, Inverness, 11 April.
Bard in the Botanics comes out to play early this year, moving indoors for a 25thanniversary revival of one of the best non-Shakespeare shows the company has ever done. Kathy McKean’s new version of Euripides’ Greek revenge tragedy sees the ever brilliant Nicole Cooper return in the title role of Gordon Barr’s Critics Awards for Theatre in Scotland winning production for an extensive tour of a show that the Herald called ‘an earth shattering portrait of a woman taking back control of herself as much as anything else,’ for whom ‘the consequences of her actions are destined to live with her forever.’
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, 21-25 April; Theatre Royal, Glasgow, 26-30 May.
John Le Carre’s 1963 best selling novel helped revolutionise the spy genre in that it showed there weren’t really any good guys. David Eldridge’s stage version expands on Le Carre’s plot involving British intelligence officer Alec Leamas’s fake defection in the then East Germany by making Leamas’s boss George Smiley more central to the action. This doesn’t stop Ralf Little making an impact as Leamas in this touring version of a show fist seen in Chichester in 2024 prior to a West End run.
Rep Stripped Festival 2026
Dundee Rep, 22-25 April
This third edition of now annual four day showcase of work in development previews excerpts of new work across the spectrum of theatre, dance and spoken word, Two separate programmes include a new musical about the Dundee Timex strike, a hip hop theatre piece, a musical about pioneering doctor Elsie Inglis and new pieces by acclaimed writers Eve Nicol and Milly Sweeney. With previous successes coming out of Rep Stripped including the soon to be revived A History of Paper, by Oliver Emanuel, this is the chance to get in on the ground floor to see what might well be theatre’s future.
Stand & Deliver: The Lee Jeans Sit-In
Tron Theatre, Glasgow, 24 April-9 May, then tours to Aberdeen, Kirkcaldy, Edinburgh, St Andrews, Peebles, Mull, Inverness, Cumbernauld and Greenock.
New play by Frances Poet conceived with journalist Paul English for the National Theatre of Scotland, and based on the 1981 strike by women workers in the Greenock based Lee Jeans factory. Developed out of conversations with some of the 240 women involved in the strike, the play looks at how women stood up for themselves and each other over the seven-month strike.
Karine Polwart: Windblown
Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, 28-30 April, then tours to St Andrews, Inverness, Glasgow, Stirling and Perth.
Karine Polwart returns with her hugely successful fusion of storytelling and song inspired by a 200 year old tree at the Royal Botanic Garden. Featuring sound design by Pippa Murphy, stunning visuals by Jamie Wardrop and with Polwart accompanied by jazz pianist David Milligan, Polwart’s creation sets out on tour following its hit run at Edinburgh Festival Fringe, both care of producers Raw Material. The Herald’s five star review described the show as ‘a work of monumental beauty’.
ends
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