One could be forgiven for thinking that Alan Cumming has been in post as artistic director of Pitlochry Festival Theatre longer than he has. Such has been Cumming’s public profile of late, be it hosting events, starring in a stage musical of his and Forbes Masson’s 1980s sitcom, The High Life, or being interviewed on these pages after being named the most influential person in Scotland's art scene for 2026, his ubiquity goes before him.
As it is, Cumming’s first season that he’s programmed for the Perthshire based theatre actually only opens this month. This will also mark the 75th anniversary of PFT, when visionary impresario John Stewart first put on theatre in a tent. Cumming’s programme celebrates in spectacular style.
This comes with Once, a new production of the hit musical that reunites the original creative team led by director John Tiffany for this multiple Tony winning show. This is followed by Inexperience, a new studio play by Douglas Maxwell, while Maureen Beattie will take the title role in Lear, a new main stage adaptation of one of Shakespeare’s biggest plays.
August will see a long overdue revival of Iain Heggie’s comedy, Wiping My Mother’s Arse, while in September, Siobhan Redmond appears in Samuel Beckett’s twentieth century classic, Happy Days. Winter will see the premiere of CEILIDH, a new musical by Noisemaker, while Paisley born Hollywood star Gayle Rankin takes the title role in David Harrower’s new adaptation of Muriel Spark’s novel, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.
As if all that wasn’t impressive enough, there are four more shows in which Cumming has direct involvement, be it as writer, director or actor. In July, I Can Die Too sees him as co-writer of a new play with music inspired by Jean Cocteau’s La Voix Humane. This sees Cumming collaborate with musical theatre star Frances Ruffelle and actress Sally George.
In August, Cumming appears alongside Shirley Henderson in a new production of A History of Paper, Oliver Emanuel and composer Gareth Williams’ hit play about love and loss, first seen in 2024. September sees Cumming move in to the director’s chair for I’ll Be Seeing You, a brand new play by Martin Sherman that stars Simon Russell Beale as flamboyant showbiz pianist, Liberace. In November, Cumming will close the season as Henry Higgins in a revival of My Fair Lady.
“I feel really excited,” gushes Cumming over Zoom. “It's been a long journey to get here, and a new era of how we do work at Pitlochry is beginning. I'm nervous as well, but I think it’s good to be nervous. It means you care.”
Cumming’s debut season coinciding with PFT”S 75th anniversary is an accidental nod to the theatre’s past, present and future.
“I feel very inspired by the 75th anniversary,” he says, “and I feel that John Stewart and I are kind of cut from the same cloth. He really manifested something that everybody thought was kind of outlandish, and I feel that's what I do too. I have tried to manifest a season, hopefully of greatness with amazing people involved, and in a way, I know I've sort of changed people's perception of what Pitlochry Festival Theatre can be. When I came here a couple years ago, that's what happened to me. I was like, what the hell is going on here? I had no idea this was such an incredible place, and I want to share that with the world.”
There aren’t many theatres whose artistic director appears on stage as well as running the show. Given Cumming’s international status as an actor, however, it would be disappointing if he didn’t star in at least one production.
“I needed to show people that I put my money where my mouth is, and that these are all things that I'm very passionate about,” Cumming says. “I think my skills as an artistic director are more in the artist bit than the business bit, and so I kind of felt in the first season, I would go a little heavy on that, just to show people that I was passionate, and that this was something I take very seriously.
“It's so funny, because in my entire career, I've only been in three musicals. I've done quite a few film musicals, but this year, because of The High Life, A History of Paper and My Fair Lady, I'll have done more musicals in one year than I have in my entire life.
“It's a huge change for me in being an artistic director, but it's also a huge change as a performer, to be doing that many types of shows that I'm never normally in, in one year. I think that's what people like in Scotland. We like people who give it a go, and I'm sort of diving off the top board.”
The four shows are clearly labours of love. Of I Can Die Too, Cumming says that “It's about a woman falling apart and doing a play about a woman falling apart, and it's got these incredible songs written by a range of different songwriters that Frankie (Ruffelle) sings with a band.”
The title comes from Cocteau’s response after being told Edith Piaf had died. “He died on the same day,” Cumming explains, “so it's got this amazing resonance about the way that artists feel about each other, and it's a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful piece.”
Cumming first looked at A History of Paper after he saw the original production.
“ I was working with Shirley at the time on Brian Cox’s film, Glenrothan,” he recalls, “and after I saw that production, I couldn't get it out of my head. I was looking for projects, and this was so beautiful. It's also such a legacy for Oliver Emanuel, and we're hopefully going to be doing him proud, and hopefully taking it elsewhere and spreading his work around the world.”
Cumming first worked with Martin Sherman twenty years ago on his play, Bent. To be directing a new work by such a major writer is clearly a thrill for Cumming.
“It's been a completely nutty experience,” he says. “I can't believe he's let me do it. It's just such an honour that he would entrust me with this play, and that Simon wanted to come and do it. It's like a stream of consciousness fantasia about a writer trying to write a play about Liberace, and again, hopefully it will be going on somewhere else afterwards.
My Fair Lady will be overseen by Broadway director Maria Friedman.
“One of the shows that I've most enjoyed over the last many years is the Merrily We Roll Along that Maria directed,” Cumming says. “I was blown away by it, and it's also kind of an analogy of what I want to do in Pitlochry. Maria took a piece that is very well known, and made it fresh and new and exciting. She said she'd always wanted to try and do the same thing with My Fair Lady.”
As well as Cumming playing Higgins, key to the show’s success is the role of cickney flower seller Eliza Doolittle.
“Right now,” says Cumming, “the search is on for our Eliza.”
With plans for PFT’s 2027 season already running on apace, how would Cumming sum up his debut programme?
“There truly is something for everyone,” he says, “but it's about honouring the past, and looking to the future, and asking people to take a chance on new ideas and new people, as well as to the people they know and titles that they love.”
Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s 2026 season opens with Once on May 23-June 27.Tickets for all shows available here – https://www.pitlochryfestivaltheatre.com/whats-on/
The Herald, May 16th 2026
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