National Theatre of Scotland
Last month, The National Theatre of Scotland also revealed more of its programme for the first half of the year; since the company's productions at The Citizens have been covered largely in December's News from North of the Border, and more of the 2014 programme will be announced later in January, the following briefly covers some of NTS's activities.
Touring small venues across Scotland is Rantin’, devised and performed by National Theatre of Scotland’s Pearson Playwright in Residence Kieran Hurley with Gav Prentice, Julia Taudevin and Drew Wright.
Originally part of the Auteurs project, Rantin’ is specifically set in the town of each performance and, drawing on storytelling, live music and the Scottish folk tradition, combines visions of Scotland’s romantic past with its present.
Another intimate show is A Little Bird Blown Off Course (Eun Bheag Chanaidh), presented in partnership with the National Trust for Scotland, as part of the 2014 Celtic Connections festival. The show was originally seen in September 2013 in partnership with the Blas Festival.
Created and performed by Fiona J MacKenzie with Signy Jakobsdottir, Alastair Iain Paterson, Patsy Reid and Innes White, the show combines live music, song, text and film to celebrate the work of Pittsburgh-born folklorist Margaret Fay Shaw, notable collector of Hebridean song and traditions.
The National Theatre of Scotland and Òran Mór's A Play, A Pie and a Pint international new writing season is now in its fourth incarnation.
Marking the Commonwealth Games, the programme has the UK premières of three plays from Commonwealth writers. The first piece is by Jamaican playwright, screenwriter and musician, Amba Chevannes; her play, The Last Bloom is set in a nursing home where the battles between Cynthia and Myrtle develop into an unlikely friendship.
Voices from the Black That I Am by Jamaican playwright Karl O’Brian Williams is a series of monologues on questions of blackness, gender, sexuality, and nationalism. The play won O’Brian Williams an award for Best New Jamaican Play.
David MacLennan, director of A Play, A Pie and A Pint, says, “In the year of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, the National Theatre of Scotland, A Play, A Pie and A Pint and the Traverse Theatre are co-producing three plays by writers from West Africa and the Caribbean.
"Glasgow’s wealth was established in large part through the slave trade and we are delighted now to be collaborating artistically with playwrights from countries which were scarred by that dark period of our shared history.”
The details of the final piece are not yet announced.
Previously A Play, A Pie and a Pint featured writers from South America, the Arab World and China.
Dragon, which premièred in 2013, plays the Guang Hua Theatre, Tianjin in June. Written by Oliver Emanuel, conceived by Jamie Harrison, Oliver Emanuel and Candice Edmunds, Dragon is a work without words for adults, teenagers and children.
The National Theatre of Scotland is also touring David Greig’s sequel to Macbeth, Dunsinane, across East Asia and The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart in North America whilst The Beautiful Cosmos of Ivor Cutler will tour nationally.
For further information and booking, visit the National Theatre of Scotland web site.