Adapted from the novel by Erlend Loe, translated by Don Bartlett and Don Shaw
“powerfully entertaining…”HHHHH The Scotsman
With thanks
Grid Iron would like to thank DKS for inviting us to Norway and enabling us to bring Doppler back to his natural home, especially Anne-Kristin Saether, Camilla Apeland, Sigbjørn Håland, Vidar Schanche, Arild Hoem and Gudrun Karina Opheim. Thank you to Kenneth Opheim and Kjetil Madsen for their help with the site and also our friends on Engøyholmen, and to Halvor and Hild for their enduring friendship and support. Thanks also to Hove West and to everyone at Øksnevad VGS for hosting Doppler
We would also like to thank everyone at Pitlochry Festival Theatre, especially Katy Nicolson, Dino Melia-Findlay, Caroline Bavey, Lochie Maceachen, Kath Clark, Erin Mullins, Alan Cumming and Deborah Dickinson.
Thanks also to Michael Heasman, Conor Burgess, Jessi, Natasha, JJ, Stuart and all at Edinburgh Open Workshop, Emma and Andy Quinn, Barrowland Ballet and Edinburgh International Festival.
This production is dedicated to the memory of our dear friend, Angela Wrapson, who made it possible for us to perform in Norway as part of Stavanger2008 European Capital of Culture. She gifted us life-long friends and an unforgettable Norwegian adventure that undoubtedly enabled our return.
DIRECTOR’S NOTE
‘I am a man of my time. A failed man of my time. Or just a man of a failed time.’
Doppler
Doppler had a long journey, even before it met a global pandemic. It was introduced to me by my friend and colleague Miljana Zekovic, who mentioned it as a good fit for Grid Iron when I visited her in Novi Sad, Serbia, in 2017. An adaptation of the novel had been a smash hit at the National Theatre of Belgrade that year.
I ordered it on Amazon who sent it to an address in Malta by mistake, where it got snarled up in a national postal strike for two months. When it finally arrived I was gripped however, read it in one sitting and immediately ordered a copy for my business partner Jude to read. With such a strong sense of the location in the forest Doppler inhabits we agreed that it would be a good fit. It also aligns with a counter-cultural theme in our work which you could date from our breakthrough show The Bloody Chamber in 1997, Angela Carter’s feminist re-working of the Bluebeard myth, through to Roam in 2006 which questioned and challenged all our assumptions about air travel and national identity, through to Barflies in 2009–2012 in which Bukowski challenges the Reaganite work ethic, and argues that true wisdom and happiness might be garnered by travelling no further than your bar stool.
‘ You can live with other people, but with often just means next to. ’
Doppler
Doppler self-isolates of course, but through his own free will, not through governmental directives brought on by a global health emergency, during which we first attempted to stage the play in 2020. He doesn’t even know why he is doing it. Initially part of a grieving process after the death of his father, he realises that a lot of human connection is not genuine, buoyed up and even distracted from by our obsession with products and status, and that his life thus far has been very comfortable, but completely hollow.
He does reject the conventional ‘nice’ family, but that doesn’t mean he is not family-orientated. When his son Gregus joins him in the woods, he’s delighted. Feeling ever closer to nature, his adoption of the elk calf whose mother he has slaughtered brings him joy, and new insights as a parental figure. Like Bukowski’s Henry, he can be profoundly selfish and egotistical, but that doesn’t mean he is not also capable of great love and empathy. And a dawning political and ecological wisdom.
‘Start bartering. And cycling. We have to cycle and barter like buggery if we ’ re going to have any chance of surviving.’
Doppler
During the global pandemic, there were many discussions about what we would learn from this enforced period of slowing down, of giving some space back to nature. There were stories of dolphins swimming the canals of Venice, deer running down the city streets of Edinburgh. I heard a woodpecker for the first time in my back garden. The skies above China cleared temporarily of pollution.
Unfortunately, the new world order which has emerged since the lockdown eased is more aggressively capitalist, exploitative, racist, grasping, violent and dangerous than ever. We seem to have learned nothing from those more reflective days of 2020–2021. Doppler would not be impressed. Our chances of survival, of retaining our humanity, seem slimmer than ever.
The challenges of the company almost presenting the only live production at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2020 have been well publicised, not least in our documentary Doppler: The Story So Far which is available via our website. In re-making the production for the third time in 2025, Doppler’s words and actions seem more important than ever, even though he may be bellowing, with a few other fellow travellers, into the void. We carry the memories of the previous incarnations in 2020 and 2021 and teams who worked so hard on those. Of course, we are absolutely delighted to be bringing the story back to its source country of Norway, as well as re-opening the production prior to that in the beautiful gardens of Pitlochry Festival Theatre, marking the company ’ s debut there.
‘The world is creaking under the strain of this inordinately complicated mass of humanity. When you came here, you came here with a sense of awe and wonder, dying to see what it was all about. What will it be like, to be a part of it? And you came here with this sense of wonder and somehow the wonder of it wasn’t enough, or you stopped wondering at it; you started to wonder about yourself, and in your wondering about yourself, you forgot what you came here for, what you came to be a part of.’
From Burgs, by Mt Wolf
As Doppler journeys East at the end of the play, with his determined army of his four- year-old son and his adopted elk calf, he seeks new models, so as not to drown in his own emptiness. He does not travel alone, and he does not travel without hope, even though he has no idea what the end point of his journey may be. Embracing new ways of being, and ways of seeing, not reaching for the endorphin rush of a new product or a new Tinder swipe or a new Facebook like, but being at ease with boredom, accepting the emptiness within, embracing it, and building back from it with a new-found wisdom. I find this inspiring. From this state, perhaps, true connection can begin. But only very few have the courage to enter it.
BEN HARRISON
CAST
Keith Fleming
Doppler
Sean Hay Gregus, Dusseldorf, ICA Guy, Posh Parent
Itxaso Moreno
Nik Paget-Tomlinson
Puppets
Production Team
Director & Adaptor
Producer
Director of Finance & Development
Set & Costume Designer
Lighting Designer
Composer
Sound Design, Musican & Live Foley
Puppet Designer, Maker & Illustrator
Production Manager
Technical Manager
Company Stage Manager
Deputy Stage Manager
Technical Support (Pitlochry)
Technical Support (Norway)
Bongo, Kjersti, Nora, Bosse, Brother-in-Law
Musician and Live Foley
Bongo’s Mum, Reactionary Dog, Doppler on a Bike
Adapted from the novel by Erlend Loe, translated by Don Bartlett and Don Shaw
Ben Harrison
Judith Doherty
Deborah Crewe
Becky Minto
Elle Taylor
David A Pollock
Nik Paget-Tomlinson
Fergus Dunnet
Elle Taylor
Dan Findlay-Carroll
Mickey Graham
Katy Steele
Conor Burgess, Michael Heasman
Sigbjørn Håland, Vidar Schanche & Arild Hoem
Production Photography (2021) Duncan McGlynn
Programme Design emmaquinndesign.co.uk
BIOGRAPHIES
Keith Fleming Doppler
Keith Fleming is a former member of the Dundee Rep Ensemble, where he appeared in over 35 productions, and winner of the Best Actor Award at the Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland.
Theatre credits include: Red or Dead (Liverpool’s Royal C (Wessex Grove / Washington Shakespeare Repertory Co Theatre); James IV (National Theatre of Scotland); Dopp (Citizens Theatre); Camino (A Play, A Pie and A Pint); Ma Lion Lion (Òran Mór); Cyrano de Bergerac (National The This Restless House (Citizens Theatre); Para Handy (Pitlo Breakfast Plays ( Traverse Theatre); The Lonesome West (National Theatre of Scotland – U.S. tour; UK tour with th (Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh); Vanya (Citizens Theatre); (Cumbernauld Theatre); City of the Blind (Fire Exit); The Edinburgh); Miss Julie (Citizens Theatre); Macbeth (Perth (Frantic Assembly); The Dark Things and Pandas ( Traver of the Wild, An Incident at the Border (Òran Mór); Barflie Untitled Love Story and Doubt; Days of Wine & Roses ( Th The Miracle Man, The Making of Us (National Theatre of (National Theatre of Scotland / Dundee Rep).
Television includes: Mayfair Witches (AMC); Shetland (BB Tall Ship Productions); West Skerra Light (BBC / Hopscot
Sean Hay Gregus, Dussledorf, ICA guy, Posh Parent
Sean Hay has worked extensively in Scottish Theatre as almost 40 years. Companies he has worked with include Wheels Theatre Company, Royal Lyceum, National Thea The Tron Theatre, Vanishing Point, Grid Iron, Curious See Lung Ha Theatre Company and Licketyspit, to name bu and performed his own show, Sunk, along with performe K.T. Producing. Beyond Scotland his work encompasses Walk the Plank, Manchester; as well as experience in rad Sean also has extensive experience in drama education drama worked for the Muirhouse Festival Activities Centr Arts), from 1992-1995. This work entailed setting up and workshops, developing the Youth Theatre and Adult Dram He also directed successful performance projects. Most recently, Sean has worked for ‘Stand Easy’ with Military Veterans to develop theatre skills and performance.
Itxaso trained at BIzkaiko Antzerki Eskola (BAI) in Bilbao, Basque Country. She has worked in Scotland and the UK for over 25 years. Itxaso is chuffed to be performing Doppler in Norway. Credits include: Treasure Island (Edinburgh Lyceum), Sho & The Demons of the Deep (Independent Arts Projects), On Falling (Sixteen Films), Sleeping Beauty (Platform Glasgow), Time Machine: A Radical Feminist Retelling (Jordan & Skinner), The Tempest ( Tron Theatre), The Secret Garden (Red Bridge Arts), Shetland (ITV Studios), Oresteia: This Restless House (Citizens/NTS), Everyman, Nation (National Theatre) The Tempest ( Theatre Royal Haymarket), Peter Pan (360 Entertainment), Doppler: The Story So Far, Crude, Once Upon A Dragon, Roam (Grid Iron), Yarn (Grid Iron/Dundee Rep), Home (NTS), Arabian Nights ( Tricycle Theatre), Lost Ones, Starts Beneath The Sea, Invisible Man (Vanishing Point), Rebus (ITV) amongst others.
Nik Paget-Tomlinson Sound Designer, Musician &
Live Foley
Nik Paget-Tomlinson is a musician, composer, sound designer and Foley artist who creates work for theatre, dance, installation, film and listening. He has performed live with various bands and musicians and has had record releases in Europe and the USA. Nik is part of The Grim Collective with Jack Hunter, was a founder member of trip hop collective 3 Bag Brew, and formed electronica duo Puchi with Niroshini Thambar. He has performed live with various bands and musicians including The Katet, Niki King, Green Juice, Bogus, Nuns ‘ n ’ Moses and the Christa Hughes Explosion.
As composer and sound designer Nik has worked with a wide range of theatre and dance companies including National Theatre of Scotland, Citizens Theatre, Grid Iron, Dundee Rep, Independent Arts Projects, A Play a Pie and a Pint, Royal Lyceum Edinburgh and Imaginate.
Credits include: Snake in the Grass (Dundee Rep), The Guns of Johnny Diablo (A Play, a Pie and a Pint), One of Two (Independent Arts Projects), Moonset (Citizens Theatre), Maya and the Whale (Independent Arts Projects), Wickies: The Vanishing Men of Eilean Mor (Paul Morrissey, Christopher Wheeler, Molly Morris), Rocket Post (Constellation Points), Doppler (Grid Iron Theatre Company), Niqabi Ninja (Independent Arts Projects), Revolution Days (Bijli Productions).
“hugely enjoyable” New York Times
Ben Harrison Director
Ben formed his first company Stomping Feet in 1988, and first brought it to Fringe in 1989. He has directed over 75 professional theatre productions. H been Co-Artistic Director of Grid Iron from 1996, since when the company has won over 30 awards for its work. He has directed 29 of the company ’ s productions. Highlights for Grid Iron include: The Bloody Chamber, Gargantua, Decky Does A Bronco, Those Eyes, That Mouth, The Devil’s Larder, Roam, Barflies, Spring Awakening, Crude, Jury Play, South Bend, The Brunch Club, Doppler and Muster Station: Leith. He directed the only live theatre event to take place in the UK in February 2021, Chalk Walk. He was Associate Director of the Almeida Theatre London 2000–2002, for which he created the acclaimed Participatory Projects programme and directed seven productions. From 2001–2004 he was a Fellow of the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts which supported his research and development of site-based work. He was Director of the Dutch company Muztheater 2004–2008, for which he directed five productions. His show Peter Pan for 360 Entertainment was seen by more than a million people in London and across the USA 2009–2015. Recent freelance work includes Chickens for Monika Klisch, Life for Maria McDonnell / KT Producing, Welcome to the Fringe Palestine for Independent Arts Projects / The Workers Theatre, Bethlehem Calling for Tramway / Celtic Connections, The Perambulations of A Justified Sinner for the Edinburgh International Book Festival, Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me, Undertow Overflow and Chalk Walk for Ben Harrison Projects, Playthrough for Play, Pie and A Pint, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar for Helen Milne/ Perth Theatre, The Park for the National Theatre of Scotland, A Game of Death and Chance and Enlightenment House for the National Trust, The Buke of the Howlat for Findhorn Bay Arts, The Tailor of Inverness for Dogstar and Let’s Inherit the Earth for Dogstar/Profilteatern.
Future projects include the return of Peter Pan for 360 Entertainment in 2026 (Australia and global tour) as well as several to be announced projects with Grid Iron, including our 30th anniversary production. Further information: www.benharrison.info.
Judith Doherty Producer
Judith is the Producer, Chief Executive and Co-Artistic Director of Grid Iron. She founded the company in 1995 and has produced all the company ’ s shows. From 2000 to 2020 she was a member of the Board of Directors of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and she has also sat on the boards of the Independent Theatre Council, NVA and was part of the Management Team of the Scottish Drama Training Network. Freelance work has included Edinburgh International Book Festival, Edinburgh International Festival, Edinburgh Fringe Society, Unique Events and BBC Scotland. In 2003 she received the Jack Tinker Spirit of the Fringe Award for her contribution to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Suddenly there was justforest
Deborah Crewe Director of Finance & Deborah has been wi working away behind generally also works t the Green Arts Cham membership of the G Climate Scotland to s is sad to not be return ticking over at home!
Becky Minto Set & C 2025 will mark Becky to be back with Grid I house productions, la National Theatre Scotland, Traverse Theatre, Perth Theatre, Raw Materials, Royal Lyceum, Vanishing Point, Dundee Rep, Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Visible Fictions, Grid Iron; aerial, circus, indoor and outdoor productions for multiple site-specific designs and large outdoor ceremonies, including the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, European and UK City of Culture outdoor events. She was recently awarded Best Set design category at the UK Pantomime Awards 2025 for Mother Goose, at Perth Theatre. She won the Silver Medal at the 2017 World Stage Design for The 306: Dawn, National Theatre Scotland.
Her designs have been selected as part of the UK exhibition Society of British Theatre Designers at the Prague Quadrennial PQ19, PQ15, PQ11 and PQ07. Future productions include, Bloom-Upswing a large scale circus, aerial outdoor performance for Bradford City of Culture 2025 and The Snow Queen, Perth Theatre. She lectures at Edinburgh College of Art in Performance Costume/Set Design.
Elle Taylor Lighting Designer & Production Manager
Elle is a lighting designer and production manager based in Glasgow. She has worked extensively throughout Scotland, the UK and overseas on award winning productions, regularly alternating between both production management and lighting design embracing the challenges and joy of both disciplines. For production management she has worke companies such as; Grid Iron, Barrowland Ballet, Scottish Opera, All or Nothing Aerial, Company Chordelia, Sleeping Warrior Company, Red Note Ensemble, The National Theatre of Scotland, Company of Wolves, Tokyo Metropolitain Theatre, Kyoto City Kuretake Cultural Centre along with other Scottish and international companies.
Her lighting design credits include: The Burns Project (Scotland National Trust), Wee Man (Barrowland Ballet), June Carter Cash; The Woman, Her Music and Me (Grid Iron/National Theatre of Scotland), Chunky Jewellery (Barrowland Ballet), Disciples (Stella Quines), Pekku (Red Bridge Arts), Over the Garden Wall Dundee (Lightworks), Brundibar (Opera North), Christmas at the Botanics, Edinburgh, ’23 ’22, ’21 (Lightworks), Opera Highlights Tour, ’21 (Scottish Opera), Doppler (Grid Iron), Glasshouse Show (Christmas at the Botanics 2020, Edinburgh), Mother Goose (Platform), Doppler – The Story so Far... (Grid Iron), The Chosen (Company Chordelia), Eric the Elf (Macrobert Arts Centre), Cosmonaut (Edinburgh Science Festival), Drunk Enough to Say I Love You (Citizen Studio), Invisible Army ( Terra Incognita), Little Red Riding Hood and Wolves of Winter (Howden Park Centre), The Tempest (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Beijing Theatre Festival), Coriolanus (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland).
Elle is delighted to be working with Grid Iron again and to bring Doppler to audiences in both Scotland and Norway.
Fergus is a collaborative artist who makes visual work for performances on stage and in the street. Trained at Glasgow School of Art, Fergus’ work focuses on presence, simplicity and surprise. His designs work with the performer and develop visual storytelling through inventive use of puppetry, object work, mask, costume, animation and theatrical magic. www.fergus-dunnet.weebly.com
Dan Findlay-Carroll Technical Manager
Dan is a production technician specialising in lighting and productio management. This is his first show with Grid Iron and he’s delighted be part of the Doppler production team. He began his training in Du before moving to Edinburgh, and his career has taken him across theatre, live events, and large-scale outdoor productions. He thrives on creating memorable experiences through innovative lighting and smooth technical delivery, whether on stage or in the open air. He has worked in a variety of contexts and venues including roles for EIF, Culture Creative, RCS and Scottish Rugby.
Alongside his production work, Dan is passionate about education and he has spent several years teaching and mentoring. He worked with Framework Theatre as a production mentor for Play Pretend and has an ongoing relationship with PASS at Edinburgh College, regularly working with their students across all disciplines. Sharing knowledge and supporting new talent is just as important to him as delivering great shows, and he looks forward to continuing both sides of his work.
Mickey Graham Company Stage Manager
Mickey has worked with Grid Iron many times since 1998, most recently on Muster Station: Leith. He has also worked with many other Scottish based companies and toured UK, Europe and the rest of the world over a twenty-eight-year career, including: The Lyceum Theatre, Dundee Rep, Vanishing Point and National Theatre of Scotland.
Katy Steele Deputy Stage Manager
Katy is a freelance Stage Manager based in worked with Ben Harrison, Barrowland Ballet on shows in Scotland and South Korea. After the industry, 2025 will be her last year worki stage manager and she’s so excited that one final shows is back with Grid Iron doing Dop at two new exciting venues.
I am becoming the forest
GRID IRON
“As our world builds up borders, our theatres endeavour to tear down walls. Pioneering site-specific theatre company, Grid Iron, continue to see such barriers and rip them apart.”
The Reviews Hub
Grid Iron is an Edinburgh based new writing theatre company which specialises in creating site-specific and location theatre although they also produce work for the stage. In their 30 years, they have received 32 awards and an even greater number of nominations covering all aspects of their work from acting, writing and use of music to stage management, design and technical expertise.
Their adventures have taken them to extraordinary places; from the slopes of Edinburgh Zoo to a massive oil-rig manufacturing shed in Dundee, a boat-builders island in a Norwegian fjord, to the former General Security building in Beirut, a working cancer hospital in Jordan, the old City Morgue in Cork, landside and airside at Edinburgh Airport and parks, housing estates, playgrounds and bars (for performances as well as recreation!) all over Scotland and Britain.
“a juggernaut of talent and energy”.
The Wee Review
They have made co-productions with many partners including National Theatre of Scotland, Traverse Theatre, Dundee Rep Theatre, Almeida Theatre London, Lung Ha Theatre Company, Stellar Quines and Edinburgh International Book Festival and
they have delivered two European Capital of Culture commissions (Cork 2005 and Stavanger2008). They have performed many times at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, three times at Edinburgh International Festival, twice at Edinburgh International Science Festival and been part of Imaginate and Edinburgh International Book Festival, their co-production with whom was supported by the Scottish Government’s Edinburgh Festivals Expo Fund and was also part of Culture 2014, Glasgow’s cultural celebration of the Commonwealth Games.
Board of Directors: Deborah Crewe, Graeme Davies, Judith Doherty, Ben Harrison, Chris Hunn and Neil Weir (Chair)
Find more information about Grid Iron at gridiron.org.uk
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If you’d like to:
SUPPORT our work: SUPPORT GRID IRON
WATCH our documentary Doppler: The Story So Far
LISTEN to our playlist inspired by Doppler: Becoming the Forest, curated by Ben Harrison
Pitlochry Festival Theatre
Since 1951, Pitlochry Festival Theatre has been the artistic heart and soul of Highland Perthshire. As Scotland’s only major, rurally located arts organisation, we ’ re more than simply a place to come and see a show, and our vision is to improve lives by sharing Pitlochry with the world and the world with Pitlochry.
Pitlochry Festival Theatre is a registered Scottish Charity No. SC013055
Den kulturelle skolesekken
(The Cultural Schoolbag)
The Cultural Schoolbag in Rogaland are delighted to present Grid Iron Theatre Company and their production Doppler in our program for this schoolyear or Upper Secondary School. About 900 students between the ages of 15 – 19 are scheduled to see Doppler in a forest close to Øksnevad Secondary School.
Doppler is one of the 23 productions that are selected to be in our program for the Cultural Schoolbag this year. ”
You can find more information about the program for The Cultural Schoolbag in Rogaland here
You can find more information about the Cultural Schoolbag here
