Scottish Theatre Highlights: June 2024
Ever wanted to see a play in a whale? Now is your chance. June in Scotland brings a wide array of adaptations of classics, from Austen to Euripides. With ambitious new work popping up all over Scotland, summer is a time for unlearning and experimentation
A Play, a Pie and a Pint continue their dazzling season with Medea on the Mic (10-15 June, Òran Mór), a queer and feminist reworking of the ancient Greek tragedy. Written by Scottish poet and playwright Nazli Tabatabai-Khatambaksh and directed by Philip Howard, the piece interweaves the story of Medea with contemporary threads.
For lovers of literary classics, Glasgow-based writer Frances Poet brings her brand new adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility to Pitlochry Festival Theatre (21 Jun-27 Sep). The world premiere leans into the visceral heartbreak of the story without losing any of the original's signature wit.
On the Orkney Islands, the 48th St Magnus International Festival (21-29 Jun) offers a wide menu of installations and theatre (as well as music, art and more). Highlights include a 50-foot, life-size replica of a sperm whale, in which the women's circus group Circo Rum Ba Ba performs a piece aptly called The Whale, which explores the pollution of our oceans. Indoors (or rather indoors not in a whale), Aotearoa/New Zealand-based company Trick Of The Light offers The Bookbinder, a solo show that follows the winding story of an apprentice bookbinder after the style of Neil Gaiman.
In Edinburgh, local company Cutting Edge Theatre is staging Rambles of the Heart (The Studio, 28 & 29 Jun), a devised adaptation of the traditional Scottish ballad, Lord Randall. Devised and performed by a cast of young adults with intellectual disabilities, the piece explores coming of age and romance through music, experimentation and metatheatre. You can read more about Rambles of the Heart in our interview with the director, Andrea Cabrera Luna in the June issue.