Alan Cumming has added four productions to his second season as Artistic Director of Pitlochry Festival Theatre, with Dolly Parton's 9 to 5 and Alan Ayckbourn's Absent Friends heading for the Main House and two world premières lined up for the Studio.
Four more titles are confirmed for Pitlochry Festival Theatre's 2027 season, the second programmed by Alan Cumming. They sit alongside the world première of Supernova, already announced, in which Cumming stars opposite Ewan McGregor. Cumming is also playing Professor Henry Higgins in Maria Friedman's production of My Fair Lady at the theatre. The 2027 season is produced in association with Sonia Friedman Productions, and Members and Patrons can book from today.
Absent Friends - The Main House, 12 March - 3 April 2027
The Main House opens the year with a new production of Alan Ayckbourn's 1974 comedy Absent Friends, directed by Owen Horsley, whose credits include Troilus and Cressida at Shakespeare's Globe, and designed by Ryan Dawson Laight. It plays out in real time across a single afternoon. Diana gathers a group of old friends for tea to cheer up Colin, whose fiancée has recently drowned, and the afternoon unravels as each guest's own unhappiness comes to the surface. The press performance is on Thursday 18 March at 6pm.
9 to 5 - The Main House, 1-29 May 2027
Musicals return to the Main House in May. Cora Bissett, director of The Singer at Dundee Rep Theatre and of Glasgow Girls, stages a new production of 9 to 5, with music and lyrics by Dolly Parton and a book by Patricia Resnick, adapted from the 1980 film. Three office workers, Violet, Judy and Doralee, reach the end of their patience with their boss, Franklin Hart Jr., and their plan to get even leaves them running the company, rather better than he ever managed. New orchestrations and arrangements are by Mark Crossland. The press performance is on Friday 7 May at 6pm.
Love Songs for Monsters - The Studio, 28 May - 19 June 2027
The first of the Studio's two premières is Love Songs for Monsters, a new play by former Edinburgh Makar Hannah Lavery, whose earlier work includes Lament for Sheku Bayoh for the National Theatre of Scotland and Jekyll and Hyde at Pitlochry. It takes Brecht's Baal, the poet who consumes everyone in his path and a part David Bowie once played, and turns it around to give the stage to the woman the original never wrote: Ayla, a poet living with grief, whose encounter with Baal becomes an intense love affair. Amber Sinclair-Case, whose credits include Kinky Boots at Chester Storyhouse, directs, and Lavery has written original songs for the production with Scottish musician Callum Easter. The press performance is on Thursday 3 June at 6pm.
Jack Vettriano Can't Paint! - The Studio, 16 July - 7 August 2027
The second Studio première, Jack Vettriano Can't Paint!, is the first professional stage play by Eden McIntyre, written with the blessing and support of the Jack Vettriano Estate. It looks at the Scottish painter whose pictures sold in their millions as prints and reproductions while critics and the art world repeatedly dismissed them, and at who has the right to call something art. The press performance is on Thursday 22 July at 6pm.
Supernova - The Main House, 24 July - 21 August 2027
Already announced and now sold out, Supernova is Harry Macqueen's stage version of his own 2020 film, directed by John Tiffany, with movement direction by Steven Hoggett and design by Jamie Harrison. Cumming and McGregor play Sam and Tusker, together for twenty years, who set off on a road trip after Tusker is diagnosed with early-onset dementia. The press performance is on Friday 30 July at 6pm.
Cumming said: “I’m so excited that our ‘27 season is both celebrating icons like Dolly Parton and Alan Ayckbourn as well as spotlighting new Scottish writing and indeed launching the career of a new Scottish playwright! These works alongside the previously announced Supernova with myself and Ewan McGregor, make for a season that is both innovative and familiar, international, and home grown and embodying the eclectic personality of the new era of Pitlochry Festival Theatre. And gird your loins – there’s more to come!”
Further 2027 productions are due to be announced in the coming months. Priority booking opened on Thursday 15 October 2026 for Patrons and Festival Circle Members; Festival Friends Members follow on Thursday 22 October and general sale begins on Thursday 29 October. Tickets start at £15, and season passes covering every production in the 2027 season are available.
