Scottish Theatre Highlights: March 2023
Scottish Opera stage Il Trittico, BUZZCUT's radical performance festival returns, and new shows from Company of Wolves & National Theatre of Scotland
March in Scotland promises a rich menu of new and local theatre. This month, Scotland's Company of Wolves is bringing Anna Porubcansky's Unbecoming on a tour of nine venues (9-29 Mar). The solo show uses myth, movement, sound, and music to interrogate choice and identity.
At Platform in Easterhouse, Farah Saleh and Oğuz Kaplangi present A Wee Journey, which explores community and belonging through live music and movement. In collaboration with the performers, the show uses lived experience to explore migration and celebrate diversity (16 Mar). The following day, Platform will host Solar Bear's The Third Sister (17 Mar), which tells the story of two women 30 years after the tragic death of their sister. The play is performed in English and BSL, with scripts available upon request.
This month also sees the opening of Scottish Opera's ambitious production of Il Trittico, Puccini's triptych of one-acts. The trio – comprised of Il Tabarro, Suor Angelica, and Gianni Schicchi – explores love and loss, drama and farce. It plays Glasgow Theatre Royal, 11, 15, & 18 March, and Edinburgh Festival Theatre, 22 & 25 March.
Kidnapped. c: Laurence Winram
From National Theatre of Scotland, audiences can catch the premiere of Isobel McArthur and Michael John McCarthy's Kidnapped, adapted from Robert Louis Stevenson's swashbuckling adventure. The production opens 28 March at the Beacon Arts Centre, Greenock, and it will visit Glasgow's Theatre Royal, Edinburgh's Royal Lyceum, Inverness's Eden Court, and Perth Theatre, touring until 13 May.
At the end of the month, Edinburgh's Royal Lyceum offers Castle Lennox in co-production with Lung Ha Theatre Company (30 Mar-1 Apr). Castle Lennox is an uplifting play with songs about people incarcerated at Lennox Castle Hospital between the 1930s and 1990s. The same weekend, BUZZCUT brings its first in-person festival to Glasgow in six years. As Glasgow's home for radical performance, the festival promises an extraordinary lineup of performance experiments. Tickets are pay-what-you-can, and performances are at Tramway and the CCA.