The Month in Scottish Theatre: February 2019

It’s another exciting and busy month in Scottish theatre this February, with premieres, tours and a few familiar faces gracing stages across the country. While there is a lot going on with so many exciting projects to choose from, here is an extremely small selection of some of the shows, tours and revivals that may have gone under the radar.

They may have just opened their latest big production, Anthropocene, but Scottish Opera never rest, and are touring around Scotland this month with a new production of Opera Highlights from 5 February. Kicking off at the Village Theatre in East Kilbride, four singers and one pianist will visit 18 venues across the country, from Barra to Benbecula and beyond, and will play a selection of works by composers including Handel, Mozart, Verdi and Bernstein.

Meanwhile the Edinburgh Playhouse will play host to American Idiot, the Tony award-winning rock musical featuring music by Green Day from 5 to 9 February. Leading the cast is Waterloo Road’s Tom Milner as Johnny, joined by 2013’s X Factor third place runner-up Luke Friend as St Jimmy and 2016 X Factor finalist Sam Lavery as Whatsername. Winner of two Tony Awards and the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album, American Idiot is the story of three boyhood friends searching for meaning in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Songs include Boulevard of Broken Dreams, 21 Guns, Wake Me Up When September Ends, Holiday and, of course, American Idiot.

In Aberdeen, Club Tropicana, a brand-new 80s musical, is set to tread the boards at His Majesty’s Theatre. Running from 11 to 16 February, and from the same producers of the hit UK tour of Hairspray, the show stars another X Factor alum, Joe McElderry, and former Sugababe Amelle Berrabah, who makes her musical theatre debut. Set in the vibrant Club Tropicana Hotel, the drinks are free, the nostalgia is flowing, and everyone’s invited to celebrate their love of the decade that fashion forgot.

There’s a double whammy of almost alarmingly prescient plays at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow this month, including Katy Dye’s hit Fringe show Baby Face, which examines the infantilisation of women and runs from 7 to 9 February. Then there's The Dark, Nick Makoha's tale of a country divided by brutal dictatorship and war. The story is told from the point of view of a young boy and his mother as they flee the conflict in 1970s Uganda. Looking at loss, displacement and escape, the play opens on 15 February and runs for two nights only (it's also on at Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh, 12-13 Feb).

After the manipulate festivities wrap up at the Traverse Theatre, the venue is home to another festival: Pride Plays, Scotland's first LGBTQI+ playwright festival. It takes place from 21 to 23 February and features three nights of original plays by LGBTQI+ writers as part of LGBT History Month Scotland. Giving the stage to voices of an underrepresented community in Scottish theatre, each play will be performed as a rehearsed reading, with two plays per night followed by a post-show discussion led by the director and playwright.

Joan Clevillé Dance return to Edinburgh after their acclaimed debut, Plan 9 for Utopia, with a new show, The North. Performed for one night only on 28 February at Assembly Roxy, this is a bleak yet whimsical story of a young man who finds himself lost in the wilderness of the North with two eccentric northerners and no memory of who he is or where he comes from. Blending dance, physical theatre and puppetry elements, the show features original music by Luke Sutherland and a soundtrack featuring everything from Wagner to Frank Sinatra.