Since its opening in May 1951, and across the 75 years of its existence, Pitlochry Festival Theatre has staged a huge number of plays. Some of the greatest or most popular of them have featured more than once.
But one famous play which has never been staged in the storied Perthshire venue is King Lear, Shakespeare’s take on the story of an ancient king in pre-Roman Britain who is undone by his decision to pit his three daughters against each other over the question of his inheritance. If that sounds familiar, there’s a reason: Succession creator Jesse Armstrong has acknowledged Shakespeare’s 1606 work as a direct influence on his blockbuster TV series.
But change is in the wind, and next month an ambitious new production of King Lear opens at Pitlochry Festival Theatre.
It’s directed and adapted by Finn den Hertog, a graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and currently co-artistic director with Scottish theatre company Groupwork. He is also an Associate Artist with the National Theatre of Scotland, for whom he directed Jack Lowden in 2024 Edinburgh International Festival (EIF) hit The Fifth Step, and he returns to the EIF in August when Groupwork performs When Prophecy Fails at the Studio Theatre.
True to his belief in pushing the theatrical envelope, den Hertog’s Lear is not a grizzled old man, as in the original, but a woman – played, in this case, by veteran Scottish actor Maureen Beattie. It isn’t an entirely original idea – Glenda Jackson played Lear in a celebrated 2016 West End production which transferred to Broadway – but it’s rare enough and a bold casting move regardless.
“This feels like the part she was born to play,” the director says of his star. “Her combination of power and fragility, her command of Shakespeare’s text, and her towering presence on stage all make her the ideal fit for the tragic monarch.
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“Our Lear is an ageing matriarch – a mother losing her grip on her reality and her family. They – and in turn we – are confronted with questions of how any family deals with the ultimate tragedy of age, illness and loss of identity.”
Joining Beattie in the cast are Forbes Masson, in the role of Gloucester, and Lindsey Campbell, Jenny Hulse and Ailsa Davidson as Regan, Goneril and Cordelia, Lear’s three daughters. Reuben Joseph, Beruce Khan, Mercy Ojelade and Dylan Read also feature.
Leading the backstage creative side of the production is designer Emma Bailey alongside a team which includes lighting designer Kai Fischer and composer Mark Melville. Notable also is the fact that Lear features the music of young piper Brìghde Chaimbeul, one of the rising stars in Scotland’s traditional music scene.
“In reimagining Lear as a woman, we have also reimagined the world of Shakespeare’s play,” adds den Hertog. “We find ourselves in a contemporary world of fiercely ambitious women battling for ultimate power, yet at the same time we’re never far from the mythic, ancient landscape that’s so richly drawn in the original.”
For Alan Cumming, in his first season as Artistic Director at Pitlochry Festival Theatre, it marks a determination to bring Shakespeare back to Scotland. “I think we have moved away from him of late and I want that to change because our accents and our passion bring the Bard to life in ways that other countries can’t,” he has said.
“Lear has always struck me as a very intimate and painful family story stuck inside the middle of a big war drama. I think in Scotland we understand both the idea of our land being fought over and how families can splinter in a second, so this Scottish and very female version of the play is the perfect addition to my first season.”
Lear opens at Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Pitlochry on July 4 until August 1, 2026
