Alan Cumming has revealed that "a weekend of queer joy" will launch his first year of events and shows he has programmed as Pitlochry Festival Theatre's artistic director.
Theatre, music, film, dance and visual art will all be showcased at the Out in the Hills festival, which playwright Lewis Hetherington has led the programming of.
Cumming, who was appointed to lead the theatre into a new era just over a year ago, has revealed plans for the new midwinter festival ahead of announcement due in the next few weeks about his first full season of stage productions, which will run from May.
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For now, here are just a few of the highlights of the programme for Out in the Hills, which will run at the Perthshire venue from January 16-18.
Equinox
Sir Ian McKellen gives the first public performance of new Laurie Slade play about a man at the end of his life who is said to be “wrestling with his past, conflicted desires, and visions of alternative realities.”
Graham Norton and Alan Cumming In Conversation
Pitlochry Festival Theatre's artistic director will host a "once-in-a-lifetime" event with the Irish comedian, actor, novelist and TV presenter, who was once taken to task by Scots actor James McAvoy on his chat show for describing Pitlochry Festival Theatre as a “small rep in the middle of Scotland.”
Jackie Kay and Armistead Maupin In Conversation
The poet, playwright and author, who served as Scots Makar between 2016 and 2021, will be interviewing the American writer best known for Tales of the City, his San Francisco-set stories, which were originally serialised in newspapers, became a series of best-selling books, and were later adapted for TV.
Me and the Girls
Alan Cumming will be among the cast of a “a radical yet faithful” adaptation of Me and the Girls, a Noel Coward story about a cabaret artist “confronting life, death and love without disguise” at the end of his life.
Matches of the Gay
Zander Murray will be recalling his experiences of becoming the first senior male Scottish footballer player to come out as gay in 2022.
Hebridean Baker
Coinneach MacLeod, who has published a number of best-selling Hebridean Baker books, will be reflecting on how growing up gay on the Isle Lewis has shaped his life and career.
Gemma Cairney and Mhairi Black In Conversation
The broadcaster and author will explore politics, queerness, resilience, and the personal stories behind public lives with Mhairi Black, who left politics before the last General Election, nine years after she was elected while she was still studying at Glasgow University.
Slum Boy
The Glasgow artist Juano Diaz will be accompanied by the world-renowned Aberdeenshire-born percussionist and composer Evelyn Glennie as he reads from his powerful new memoir.
Rainbow Classics
The Resol String Quartet showcase classical music created by queer composers across history. .
Clifford and her daughter, Cosmopolitan journalist Catriona Innes will be discussing how “queerness shapes family life and thrives across generations".
Murder She Wrote
Best-selling Scottish authors Louise Welsh and McDermid go head-to-head to discuss writing, crime, and queer women in literature.
Queer as Folk
Cabaret star Chris Wilson and award-winning piper, fiddler and composer Malin Lewis, who hails from the Isle of Skye, lead festivalgoers through a "joyfully queer, inclusive, and unmissable" ceilidh dance.
Who Will Be Remembered Here
Conceived by writer Lewis Hetherington and artist CJ Mahony, the film project saw four queer writers - Robert Softley Gale, Harry Josephine Giles, Robbie MacLeòid and Bea Webster - respond to historic sites across Scotland in Scots, Gaelic, English and BSL.
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