Scotland's national theatre is to work with Lee Hall, the writer of Billy Elliot, on a world premiere of a new play at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Hall has adapted the Alan Warner novel, The Sopranos, for the stage, and the play, entitled Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour, will be directed by Vicky Featherstone, the former artistic director of the National Theatre of Scotland (NTS).
The play is part of the NTS programme from July to December this year which has been revealed today.
Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour is a co-production with Live Theatre, Newcastle upon Tyne.
Lee Hall's adaptation will premiere at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, at the Traverse Theatre, from 18 August.
It will tour Scotland and to Live Theatre, Newcastle until 24 October.
Hall said: "I am delighted to be working for the first time with the National Theatre of Scotland.
"This is a project I've wanted to bring to the stage since I first read the book 17 years ago.
"Alan Warner's view of the world chimed so much with my own experience of growing up in Newcastle so it seemed a perfect project to work on as a co-production with Live Theatre where I have a very long association.
"I think the Scots and Geordies share a common understanding of the world.
"A robust sense of humour, an appetite for a good time and a lack of pretension about what Art should be.
"The Sopranos is filthy, manic, hilarious and heartbreaking in equal measure - all the things I think theatre should be. Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour is a show full of music from the most exquisite classical choral pieces to foot stomping disco classics and much else in between.
"This is a very special show and very much a labour of love for Vicky Featherstone and I who have been working on this for several years now."
Ms Featherstone said: "I am beyond thrilled that Alan Warner has trusted Lee Hall with his game-changing novel about the Soprano's from Oban and am honoured that Laurie Sansom has programmed this anarchic, heart-breaking and life-filled show.
"It is everything that Scotland is - fearless, hopeful, musical, angry, unique and I cannot wait to be back telling this story with the National Theatre of Scotland."
Warner said: "I am flattered that The National Theatre of Scotland and talents like Lee and Vicky are taking on these young loonies, who are dear to my heart. Enjoy it, everyone."
Laurie Sansom, artistic director of the NTS said: "A group of Catholic school girls from Oban takes the trip of a lifetime to Edinburgh; we experience their tribal loyalties and the unique joy of friendship and rebellion that only teenage years can bring."
The season will also include Vox Motus's theatrical spectacle Dragon, Paul Bright's Confessions of a Justified Sinner and two new shows for audiences in Forres and Wigtown, led by Associate Director, Simon Sharkey, alongside Davey Anderson and Claire Halleran.
Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour will also travel to Glasgow, Aberdeen, Fife, Inverness, and Musselburgh.
The play comes with a soundtrack of classical music and 70s pop rock, featuring music by Handel, Bach and ELO, Our Ladies... is "an outrageous piece of new music theatre" with Tony-winning Martin Lowe (Once) as Music Supervisor.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article