Edinburgh’s festival season may be over, but there is still plenty going on across Scotland’s stages as autumn seasons kick off in earnest with a series of big plays with big ideas.
Wiping My Mother’s Arse
Pitlochry Festival Theatre until 5 September.
Last chance to see this long overdue revival of Iain Heggie’s rewritten sit-com style dark farce first seen at Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre in 2001. Set in a care home, Heggie’s play navigates what follows when long-term patient Andrene’s son, Derek, turns up to see her with his gobby new girlfriend Kath in tow. With Andrene being looked after by nurse Larry, a not so merry go round of secrets and lies ensues in a play that is revealed as a Scottish heir to Joe Orton’s Entertaining Mr Sloan, as well as revealing Heggie as a writer way ahead of his time.
Irvine Welsh’s PORNO
Albany, Greenock, 5 September; Eden Court Theatre, Inverness, 12 September; Tivoli Theatre, Aberdeen, 14 September; Macrobert Arts Centre, Stirling, 30 September. Tour continues.
The Trainspotting musical may have been put back on the shelf for the time being, at least, but fans of Auld Reekie’s most prolific novelist can take solace in this already successful stage version of Welsh’s 2002 sequel to his debut novel. Davie Carswell’s adaptation picks up the baton to catch up with Trainspotting’s era defining gang of radges fifteen years on, as Renton makes a prodigal’s return to Leith to tend to his sick mother.
A History of Paper
Pitlochry Festival Theatre until 12 September; Dundee Rep 16-19 September.
Alan Cumming finally graces the stage for the first time since he became artistic director of Pitlochry Festival Theatre, appearing opposite Shirley Henderson in this revival of the late Oliver Emanuel’s play with songs composed with Gareth Williams. Originally heard as a radio play in 2017, this intimate look at a story of love, loss and the things we both carry with us and leave behind.
The Steamie
Dundee Rep until 12 September; Ayr Gaiety, 15-19 September; Macrobert Arts Centre, Stirling, 21-26 September; His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen, 29 September-3 October. Tour continues until November.
Tony Roper’s comedy set on a 1950s Glasgow New Year’s Eve as four women do their laundry in the local washhouse has become a bona fide classic since it first appeared in 1987. As it returns for a brand new touring production directed by the play’s author, audiences old and new can revel in the banter, sense of community and out and out hilarity that has made the play such an irresistible smash hit. Its common touch too reaches audiences theatres across the land are crying out for. Younger theatre makers should attend en masse to see how it’s done.
1984
Citizens Theatre, Glasgow until 26 September; Dundee Rep 30 September-10 October. Tour continues until November.
George Orwell’s very British dystopian classic is brought to the stage in a new version by playwright Chris Hannan, whose work was last seen at the Citizens Theatre in 2013 with his brilliant adaptation of Dostoyevsky’s novel, Crime and Punishment. Like that production, Hannan’s look at Orwell’s glimpse at an increasingly familiar looking post truth future where group think reins will be directed by Citz artistic director Dominic Hill in this co-production with the Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh and Dundee Rep. Jack Tarlton plays Winston Smith, with Jessica Hardwick, who played Sonya in Crime and Punishment, as Julia.
The Tailor of Inverness
Macphail Centre, Ullapool, 5 September; Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, 7-8 September. Tour continues until November.
Matthew Zajac’s deeply personal solo play about his father’s flight from the then Polish region of Galicia in what is now Western Ukraine tells a remarkable story of exile that sees him eventually land in Inverness. First seen in 2008 in a production by the Highland based Dogstar company, Zajac’s show has itself travelled the world, as it embarks on its latest Scottish tour.
The Singer
Lemon Tree, Aberdeen, 9-12 September; Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, 15-19 September; Dundee Rep, 23-26 September.
Following a successful Edinburgh Festival Fringe run, Cora Bissett’s play featuring new songs by KT Tunstall steps out for a short tour as it tells the story of a washed up musician and a deaf artist with whom he forms a creative alliance which sees them both be heard anew.
Happy Days
Pitlochry Festival Theatre, 18 September-10 October.
Siobhan Redmond and Forbes Masson star in Roxanna Silbert’s studio production of Samuel Beckett’s classic 1961 play in which a woman buried up to her waist in sand reflects on her life while her husband stays out of view. Redmond follows in a long line of actresses who have taken up the challenge of Beckett’s work in what promises to be a tragicomic tour de force.
When Prophecy Fails
Lemon Tree, Aberdeen, 17 September; Paisley Town Hall, 23 September. Tour continues until October.
Following its Edinburgh International Festival run, the innovative Groupwork company take their startling study of faith and believing out on a short tour. Taking its starting point from a 1950s group of Seekers who believed UFOs would beam them up and save them from the end of the world, Finn den Hertog and Vicki Manderson’s production fuses text, dance, film and retro music to take a forensic look at what happens when everything you believe in lets you down.
Antigone
Tron Theatre, Glasgow, 18 September-10 October.
More new work from Finn den Hertog is to be had in his production of this classic Greek tragedy, seen in this new production for the Tron in an already acclaimed version by Lulu Raczka that here stars Eilidh Loan in the title role of the young woman attempting to bury her brother in the face of him being shamed following civil war.
I’ll Be Seeing You
Pitlochry Festival Theatre, 22 September-11 October.
Liberace was one of showbusiness’s great characters, and here comes under the spotlight in a brand new play by Martin Sherman that stars Simon Russell Beale as a fantasy version of the flamboyant entertainer. Liberace appears in the play care of a young writer played by Fra Fee, who attempts to get behind the sparkly myth of the pianist’s fame, only to be challenged from the grave by the man himself in a play in which its Tony award winning author Sherman upends all received preconceptions about the ultimate entertainer.
Wallace
Beacon Arts Centre, Greenock, 23 September; Pavilion Theatre, Glasgow, 25-26 September; King’s Theatre, Edinburgh, 30 September-3 October.
Rob Drummond and Dave Hook’s hip hop take on Scottish history has been considerably scaled up since it first appeared at Oran Mor’s A Play, a Pie and a Pint lunchtime theatre season a coupled of years back, with Orla O’Loughlin’s production for Raw Material getting its freak on for this short tour.
The Herald, September 5th 2026
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