Taking the theme of "belonging", something we all crave, the National Theatre of Scotland (NTS) is offering up this coming season exciting new contemporary drama, international new writing, tours, major new adaptations of Scottish books, and award-winning revivals.
“Most of us want to belong," says Laurie Sansom, Artistic Director of the National Theatre of Scotland, "tribes, families, clans and gangs have their joys and their challenges. We’ve taken that as our touchstone for our 2015 season of work... we hope you will join us to explore what it means to feel part of a gang or out there on your own”.
From January to June 2015, along with new adaptations of books by literary legends Muriel Spark and Compton Mackenzie, the NTS will produce 9 world premieres including new plays and adaptations from lead artists and writers Douglas Maxwell, Iain Finlay Macleod, Laurie Sansom, Cora Bissett, Yusra Warsama, Kai Fischer, and Graham McLaren.
Two of the NTS’ past successes, the adaptation of the contemporary Swedish vampire love tale adapted from John Ajvide Lindqvist’s novel Let the Right One In and the RSC co-production of David Greig's Dunsinane starring Siobhan Redmond’s will see their US premières.
Writer David Greig says, “…Wherever Dunsinane goes, new audiences seem to bring new context and light the play up in a different way. I can’t wait to find out how the story comes over in the different cities in America.
The NTS collaborates with A Play, A Pie and A Pint for the fifth time, with world premières that bring the current Crimean conflict to theatrical life with new plays by three "well-established and enormously respected" Russian and Ukrainian writers.
The new collaborative works from writers of Novii Drama (New Drama) will be adapted and directed by acclaimed Scottish theatre makers Peter Arnott and Davey Anderson.
Curator Nicola McCartney visited Moscow four years ago to find out if anyone there might be interested in A Play, A Pie and A Pint. "Shortly after that trip, the hostilities between the two countries commenced and we knew the time was ripe," she says.
"We asked them to respond to what has been happening over the last 18 months. Nothing in the history of Russia or Ukraine is ever simple”.
A Play, A Pie and A Pint season continues with a new Gaelic version of Compton Mackenzie’s legendary classic Whisky Galore (Uisge-Beatha Gu Leòr) from new Gaelic theatre company, Robhanis. This world première is adapted by the Artistic Director of Robhanis, Iain Finlay Macleod, and directed by Guy Hollands.
World premières are the name of the game this season! One is due in the form of a piece of documentary drama theatre, Rites from acclaimed Scottish writer Cora Bissett and Mancunian performance poet Yusra Warsama that tackles the sensitive issue of Female Genital Mutilation from the perspective of the communities involved. This first NTS co-production with Manchester company Contact tours to Glasgow, Manchester and Edinburgh from 5 to 23 May 2015.
A new adaptation of Roberto La Cossa’s La Nona, is Yer Granny by Scottish playwright, Douglas Maxwell who has set the comedy in a Scots-Italian family fish and chip shop. It is directed by NTS Associate Director Graham McLaren and will tour to Scotland’s large theatre stages and beyond from 19 May to 4 July 2015.
A new version of Muriel Spark’s favourite novel, The Driver’s Seat, from NTS’ Artistic Director Laurie Sansom is a darkly comic production with set design from Ana Inés Jabares Pita that will show in in Edinburgh and Glasgow in the Summer. This will be the first theatrical presentation of Muriel Spark’s psychologically thrilling 1970 short novel.
The NTS and the Tron Theatre support Kai Fischer, a German artist working as a director, writer and designer in Glasgow, with his Last Dream (On Earth), a show that offers audiences a journey across borders, into space and beyond ,with live music and an immersive soundscape. It will tour to Glasgow, St Andrews, Paisley, Shetland and Inverness from 1 to 18 April 2015.
Director Kai Fischer says, Last Dream (On Earth) is "about the spaces in our performance and your imagination".
"It is about the frontiers. It is about what we are prepared to do to reach the unknown and why. And so it is also about conversations between two people who are worlds apart,” says Fischer.
The NTS's association with inter alia Scottish Book Trust will continue to develop over the next few years as the NTS delves into Scotland’s world-class literary canon, creating a strand of programming around books, adaptations and the alchemic theatrical transformation from page to stage. The aim is to engage communities by exploring their stories, urban myths and fairytales, turning them into compelling sensory theatre experiences.
For full tour information check www.nationaltheatrescotland.com