Sunset song Programme

HIS MAJESTY’S THEATRE | ABERDEEN presents

Adapted by Alastair Cording

For days now the wind has been in the south, shaking and playing in the moors and dandering up the Grampians, quivering the rushes about the loch.

But it only brings more heat. All the parks are fair parched, sucked dry, the red clay soil gaping open for the rain that seems never coming.

Some say the North, up Echt way where we used to bide, has had rain enough. But here the roads you walk down are fair blistering, thick with dust. Any motor car you see goes shooming through it like kettles under steam.

Lewis Grassic Gibbon

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foreword Song is generally considered one of the greatest Scottish novels of all time.

Sbe unset Written by Lewis Grassic Gibbon (real name Leslie Mitchell) the novel came to known and loved by many through a 1970s’ television adaptation of the book – starring Vivien Heilbron in the lead role of Chris Guthrie - and through later stage productions.

James Leslie Mitchell was a prolific writer in his own name but is perhaps better known for the Scots Quair trilogy he wrote under the pseudonym of Grassic Gibbon – comprising Sunset Song, Cloud Howe and Grey Granite.

The storyline of Sunset Song follows the life of Chris Guthrie from her teenage years on a small farm in the Howe of the Mearns, exploring her relationships with her brother and their domineering father. After the death of her mother and father, the story moves on to her relationship with her first love and later husband Ewan Tavendale, and then to others following his death.

The novel and the adaptation for stage by Alastair Cording conjure up the feel of life in the Mearns with the sights, sounds and language of the area south of Stonehaven. It gives a wonderful feeling of rural life in Scotland in the early part of the 20th century, and of the impact of the First World War on the young men who went to war and on the families left behind.

This new stage production, directed by Kenny Ireland and designed by Hayden Griffin, features further development of Cording’s stage adaptation and introduces some additional scenes from the book.

Duncan Hendry Chief Executive Aberdeen Performing Arts

director’s note this play? I suppose because it is a gripping story that also asks the kind Whyof questions that any serious work of art should.

Sunset Song, with its range of unforgettable characters caught up in the forces much bigger than themselves, depicts the steady decline of the small farm. At the centre, is Chris Guthrie, as she develops from child into woman, experiencing the paradox of loathing the hardship and coarseness of farming life and yet aware of the spiritual rewards of living so close to nature.

This tension in how she feels about the land – ‘I love it and hate it in a breath’– is what makes this play relevant, especially now when a devolved Scotland is asking itself: ‘Who are we? How do we feel about being Scottish?’

I was also attracted by the storytelling challenges that such a rich novel poses – the opportunities for a skilled ensemble company to take the audience through this tale, at breakneck speed, playing lots of different characters and not lose the clarity necessary for storytelling.

So there you are; for me this is a play about a story and a landscape and I hope that the design of the production reflects this.

Kenny Ireland Director

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synopsis n important Scottish classic, Sunset Song was almost out of print when the BBC television series in the 70s revived interest in Lewis Grassic Gibbon and his work A and put this novel on the school curriculum.

It is the first in his A Scots Quair trilogy and follows Chris Guthrie throughout her lifetime, using flashbacks to important moments, realistically describing life in The Mearns in the early 20th Century with an insider’s understanding of the issues facing rural Scottish communities around the time of the First World War. The focus of Sunset Song is her relationships with her family and the land which they farm. Her mother commits suicide and poisons her two young twins, leaving Chris, her father and elder brother Will to manage the farm. Her brother’s strained relationship with his father forces Will to emigrate, and after her father suffers a debilitating stroke, Chris has to take over. She avoids his attempts to force her into an incestuous relationship and yet, when he passes away, she cries for him and for the hardships he had to endure for the family. At this point, Chris has to choose between a life of education and books with a job teaching in the city, or remaining on the land she both loves and hates, tied to a rural lifestyle.

She chooses the land and settles down with her young husband, farmer Ewan Tavendale, giving birth to their son. However, the First World War reaches into even the quiet rural corners of Kincardineshire, and its young men, including Ewan, are called to join the war effort.

He returns a changed man, treating Chris badly on a short home leave, and later dies in battle. Chris discovers only later that he was shot as a deserter, trying to get home to her.

In the epilogue, while summing up the lives of those in The Mearns, Chris is on the brink of a new chapter in her life, as the wife of the new minister, and the novel ends poignantly with him dedicating a war memorial to those lost in the war, including Ewan.

Sunset Song is an insight into the life of a young woman growing up in a rural Scottish community in the 20s and 30s. Her story, and that of those around her, reflect wide-reaching issues - the affects of the war, national identity and the impact of modern ways on rural life are dealt with strongly and unflinchingly.

The personal connection with Chris, combined with this development of relevant themes, makes Sunset Song an enduring and significant novel.

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lewis grassic gibbon

AUTHOR

ewis Grassic Gibbon, otherwise known as James Leslie Mitchell, is one of the most remarkable figures in LScottish Literature.

Born in February 1901, he grew up in the rural communities of the North-East of Scotland. These early years, spent in the crofting communities around Aberdeen, were to shape and colour his writing, especially the Scots Quair trilogy.

He spent his childhood between Auchterless in Buchan and Arbuthnott in the Howe o’ the Mearns. Educated at Mackie Academy, Stonehaven, he struggled to gain the recognition of his abilities from his teachers and his parents. Disillusioned by this lack of acknowledgment, he left school at 16 to become a journalist in Aberdeen and later Glasgow.

He spent the depression years in the Army and the RAF. He found the experience of life in the forces unpleasant, however it gave him the opportunity to travel to the Middle East and the time to write a series of short stories and articles. Their publication allowed him to leave the forces and settle with his wife Rebecca Middleton, a former neighbour from Arbuthnott.

They moved to London and later Welwyn Garden City, where they had two children: daughter Rhea Sylvia, born in1930 and son Daryll Allan Leslie, born in 1934.

He was a happy family man who managed to balance his home life with his work.

He enjoyed six successful and productive years in which he produced 17 books, including novels, short story collections, novels, a biography and historical works.

Peritonitis led to his early death at just 34, in 1935.

However, his short life has left an enduring literary legacy - with A Scot’s Quair being his greatest accomplishment.

interesting facts hen Sunset Song was first published, some readers were shocked by its realistic W treatment of sex and childbirth, and its sometimes negative portrayals of family life. Some wondered if it had been written by a woman using a male pseudonym.

Women have been known to refuse to believe that the description of childbirth at one point was written by a man.

Sunset Song was voted Best Scottish Book of All Time. It received more Ithenthan2005, 400 votes from the public over a six-month period. The result, announced at Edinburgh International Book Festival, saw Sunset Song 80 votes ahead of the second placed work, The Game of Kings. More than 5000 emails and text messages were received by the organisers of the competition. n 1971, BBC Scotland produced a highly-acclaimed mini series Inovel based on Sunset Song, making a significant change from the in turning Chris into the narrator. The TV series made a star out of Vivien Heilbron (pictured right) who played Chris, and was a significant factor in putting the novel on the school curriculum.

Before then, Sunset Song was in danger of going out of print. nternational tourists visiting the Grassic Gibbon Centre in Arbuthnott are often Iexpecting surprised to discover the life and times of a celebrated author when they are apes!

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kenny ireland

DIRECTOR

Ireland is a producer, director and actor who has worked in the British Kenny theatre for over 40 years.

His directing career started at The Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh in 1972, training with Bill Bryden and Sir Richard Eyre. There he became Artistic Director of The Young Lyceum company, a highly successful studio company dedicated to creating work for young people. After that as a freelance director he worked with various British theatre companies including The Traverse, Joint Stock, Contact Theatre and the Royal National Theatre.

In 1988, with the playwright Howard Barker he founded The Wrestling School, a theatre company set up to explore Barker's theories of performance in contemporary theatre.

In 1993 he came back to Scotland, to The Royal Lyceum where over the next 10 years he produced exactly 100 plays. His own productions during that time include Guys & Dolls, A View from the Bridge, Romeo and Juliet, Phaedra, Macbeth, Lovers, The Anatomist, Clay Bull, Mother Courage, Much Ado About Nothing, Of Mice and Men, Private Lives, Oleanna, The Gowk Storm, Waiting for Godot, Dancing at Lughnasa, Oedipus Tyrannos and A Midsummer Night's Dream.

He commissioned 15 new plays and produced 10 of them culminating with Peter Arnott’s The Breathing House which received five star reviews and won the 2003 TMA best new play award.

In 2003 he left the Lyceum better than he found it and returned to a freelance career.

Since then his directing credits include Treasure Island at The Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, and The Sundowe – an astonishing new musical at Eden Court, Inverness and his acting includes playing Dame in pantomime in Belfast (a lifetime ambition), touring in Brian Friel’s Translations for the Royal National Theatre, and he is now preparing for the third series of ITV’s BAFTA-nominated comedy series Benidorm.

hayden griffin

DESIGNER

et and costume designer Hayden Griffin was born and grew up in South Africa.

Sin 1966 He came to London in 1966 and trained at the Sadlers Wells Design Course under Margaret (Percy) Harris and from 1968 ran the Motley Design School, with Percy, as her co-director for the next 25 years.

A designer of considerable repute, he has designed for the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain, including seven world premiere productions such as Glengarry Glen Ross and Pravda.

He has also designed extensively for the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Court Theatre among others, and for opera, musicals and ballet. In the United States, his theatre credits include the world premiere of The Day Room Rockerfeller & the Indians, Players, A Map of the World and Money and Friends.

Hayden regularly designs internationally including the USA, the Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Denmark, Australia and the former Yugoslavia. In Australia he designed the premier of David Hare’s A Map of the World. In Italy, he has designed many productions (mostly working with director Marco Sciaccaluga of the Teatro di Genova, on productions such as Ivanov, A Month in The Country and Lady Windermere’s Fan) including several productions for the festivals of Verona and Taormina.

His film and television credits include the award-wining feature films Intimacy, Wetherby and Syrup, as well as Shaftesbury Films’ Conquest, and Painted Angels starring Kelly McGillis and Brenda Fricker and the BBC film Food for Ravens starring Brian Cox. 6

alastair cording

DRAMATIST

orn and brought up in Glasgow. Co author and co director of The Golden City, (Edinburgh Festival Fringe First Award, 1974). Collaborative work includes B Tempest Now, for TNT in 1986; and children’s plays for Masque Theatre, Norfolk, and Theatre at Work, Glasgow. Adaptations include Sunset Song, Cloud Howe and Grey Granite for TAG Theatre at the Edinburgh International Festival in 1993; Wild Harbour and Gay Hunter for BBC Radio; David Copperfield (Eastern Angles, 1995); Lanark (TAG Theatre, awarded Critics’ Drama Award, Edinburgh Festival 1995), and Wilkie Collins’ No Name (Eastern Angles).

Original plays include Mrs.O’s Saturday Nights (Covent Garden Festival, 1998, and – revised for a larger cast – again in 2000); Margaret Catchpole (Eastern Angles, 2000); Fatale (Basingstoke Haymarket, 2001); and The Walsingham Organ (Eastern Angles, 2002); Margaret Down Under, (Eastern Angles, 2004).

Eastern Angles have commissioned a new play, Martyrs, based on the martyrdom of St. Edmund and set in modern Eastern Europe. David Copperfield is soon to be published by Nick Hern Books.

Alastair is also an actor: on television Skins, Fallen Angel, Cold War, The Bill, Bombay Blue, Eastenders, Bad Boys, Roughnecks, Taggart, Lovejoy, Aliens, Leaving, Help and Open Season; theatre includes Hobson’s Choice (Manchester Royal Exchange), The Madness of George lll (WYP/Birmingham Rep), The Reader (Borderline), Hellbent (Traverse), Dead Dad Dog (Traverse), The Alchemist (Cambridge Theatre), Macbeth (Red Shift), Cabaret Faust (TNT), The House with The Green Shutters (Communicado), and Fugitives (ICA),The Television Programme (The Gate), Noises Off (Taunton Brewhouse).

paul anderson

MUSICAL DIRECTOR

legend and a revered virtuoso in the time-honoured tradition of Scottish fiddle music, master fiddler Paul Anderson was born in Tarland and has his roots A deep in the North-east: his family go back for generations in the area and his parents ran a dairy farm locally until fairly recently.

He first took up the instrument at the age of five, when he found a fiddle under the spare bed at his grandparents’ house near Tarland and was encouraged by them to play. It is the same fiddle he plays today.

His tutor at school was Andy Linklater, but his Scottish fiddle tutor was Douglas Lawrence, the most acclaimed pupil of Hector MacAndrew and part of a fiddle tradition which goes directly back to Niel Gow, the father of Scottish fiddle music.

He played fiddle with the Shetland rock band Rock, Salt and Nails, but his main interest has always been in the performance and composition of traditional Scottish fiddle music.

He has been described as part of a long and honoured tradition of famous fiddle players and composers whose names echo down the centuries, Skinner, Gow, Marshall, Fraser, along with a host of others all outstanding players as well as composers of distinction. Paul has won most of the fiddle championships in Scotland, is a regular on Scottish television and radio, has toured extensively and has seven solo albums. He is already something of an icon in Scotland – specially commissioned portraits of him hang in Aberdeen Art Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh – and is a composer of some repute, having written 281 tunes which are to be published in the Lochnagar Collection by the Highland Music Trust later this year.

Paul is a research fellow in the creative and performing arts at the Elphinstone Institute, Aberdeen, where his research, believed to be the first of its kind in the UK, aims to reconnect local musicians with the unique fiddle style of the North-east.

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Jjohn harris J

LIGHTING DESIGNER

ohn Harris was Chief Electrician at the Shaftesbury Theatre until 1995. He became Andy Philip’s assistant, with whom he worked on many productions in the provinces and the West End. As a Lighting Designer, theatre credits include: Son of Man (RSC); Uncle Vanya, (Albery Theatre); Michael Feinstein (Comedy Theatre); Women on The Verge of HRT (UK Tour); Small Change and Moving Susan for the Basingstoke Haymarket.

For the Arundel Festival, he has designed Henry V, Macbeth and Midsummer Nights Dream and Much Ado About Nothing. He has worked extensively for the Orange Tree in Richmond where his recent lighting designs include The Road to the Sea, Simplicity, Me Myself and I, Dona Rosita, Love’s a Luxury also at the Stephen Joseph Theatre and Myth Propaganda and Disaster…, For Guildford’s Yvonne Arnaud Theatre he has designed The Curious Quest for the Sandman's Sand, Skool & Crossbones, Shake Ripple & Roll, Pandemonium! (a Greek Myth-adventure)" including a run at the Edinburgh Festival 2001 and each pantomime since 2001.

He has also relit many shows on tour including Hayfever, Calamity Jane, Martin Guerre, Dame Edna, Kill a Mockingbird, Month in the Country, Uncle Vanya and Mansfield Park.

As a Vari-Lite programmer and crew chief he has worked around the world including Saudi Arabia, the Caribbean, Paris, Rome, Vienna, Athens and Dubai; as well as in the UK on the Brit Awards (Earls Court); the MTV Awards (Dublin); Joy to the World, (Albert Hall); Passion Play (Donmar Warehouse and Comedy Theatre); Hotstuff, (Leicester Haymarket); Godspell, for David Pugh; The Buckingham Palace Jubliee Celebrations for Unusual Events; Torvill and Dean at Nottingham’s Ice Stadium; Showtime at The Stadium for BBC Wales & LSD at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium, the closing performance of Cats (London) for Cameron Mackintosh and as UK Moving Light Programmer for The Producers (Theatre Royal Drury Lane).

Recent credits include Associate Lighting Designer Miss Saigon (UK Tour), Vari-Lite programmer for the Gala Performance of Les Miserables (Entente Cordiale, Windsor Castle, November 04) and as Lighting Designer of the world premiere of Flying Under Bridges (Watford Palace Theatre), Kingfisher Blue (The Bush Theatre) and Romeo and Juliet (Birmingham Rep). He is Lighting Designer for Time’s Up the world premiere of the new Ray Cooney musical which opened at the Yvonne Arnaud in October 2005.

andrew panton MOVEMENT DIRECTOR ndrew has held directing residencies at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Northampton Theatres, Perth Theatre and Stage Door, NYC. In 2003 he won the Bruce Millar Award for directing. Andrew is currently Acting Head of Musical Theatre at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama.

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Recent credits include Black Watch (Assistant Director, NTS); A Sheep Called Skye (Director, NTS); Sundowe (Movement Director, Eden Court Theatre/Mackintosh Foundation); Hamlet (Composer, Citizen’s Theatre); The Wonderful World of Dissocia (Vocal/Movement Coach, NTS); Gorgeous Avatar (Movement Director, Traverse Theatre); The Rise & Fall of Little Voice (Musical Director, Visible Fictions); Follies (Associate Director, Northampton Theatres); The Yellow on the Broom (Director, Perth Theatre); Annie Get Your Gun (Resident Director, National Tour); Snake in the Grass (Resident Director, National Tour). This Christmas, Andrew will co-direct The Wizard of Oz at the Citizen’s Theatre.

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hannah donaldson

CHRIS GUTHRIE

trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama graduating in 2007.

Hannah College theatre roles include Talking To Terrorists, Peer Gynt, Jack & The Beanstalk, Mr Puntilla & His Man Matti, The Tempest, Here Comes A Chopper and The Philistines.

Before graduating she had already appeared in a three Minute Wonder film. Mashed for C4; recorded Beyond the Thundercloud for BBC Radio and played the leading role of Jean Monroe in Rebus: The First Stone with Ken Stott for ITV. Since graduating theatre appearances include the role of Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Jack and the Beanstalk (both Dundee Rep), Yarn (Dundee Rep/Grid Iron TC), and the title role in David Levin’s adaptation of Antigone at the Glasgow Tron Theatre.

Her most recent television appearance was as Holly in the BBC’s Dis/connected.

Jjoyce falconer

JEAN GUTHRIE

oyce was raised in Torry, Aberdeen, and her maternal family came from the Mearns. She graduated from RSAMD in Glasgow after being awarded the JDuncan Macrae Memorial Prize for Scots Verse.

She has enjoyed a varied career in Scottish theatre, ranging from Shakespeare at the Citizen, to one-woman shows in working mens’ clubs and commercial panto.

Television credits include Taggart, Crimefile, Cardiac Arrest 1 & 2, and Finney but it is her role of Roisin in BBC Scotland’s soap River City for which she is best kent. She writes and performs her own material in Scots and has performed at numerous Burns Nights, at home and abroad.

Joyce worked front-of-house at HMT then returned to play Fairy Godmother in their Centenary panto. She is delighted to be part of their first touring production.

finn den hertog

WILL GUTHRIE

trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama graduating in 2007.

Finn His recent theatre includes The Wall (Borderline TC Tron – CATS award-winner 2008), Peter Pan (Glasgow Citizens'), The Tempest (AandBC/USA Tour), Saint Joan (AandBC Theatre/Fisher College, New York), Pushing Up Poppies (Edinburgh Fringe Festival) and Inferno (Glasgow Arches).

College theatre roles at RSAMD include Talking To Terrorists, Peer Gynt, Jack & The Beanstalk, Mr Puntilla & His Man Matti, The Tempest, Plasticine, Here Comes A Chopper and The Philistines.

Television includes My Spy Family (Kindle Entertainment), Taggart (SMG), Rebus (SMG). Radio includes Lost in Plain Sight (BBC R4) and Mr Paterson (Comedy Unit).

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rod matthew R

JOHN GUTHRIE

od was born in Dundee and went to London to train at Webber Douglas Academy. He worked on the London Fringe and then with the Mikron Theatre Company in Yorkshire.

He joined West Yorkshire Playhouse for a year before returning to his home town in 1999 as a founder member of Scotland’s Ensemble at Dundee Rep where, over five years, he played many roles with the company.

He has since moved between working in Scotland at the Glasgow Tron Theatre, with Borderline and Benchtours, and in England with Nottingham Playhouse, Oxford Shakespeare Company and the BBC in Manchester and London.

He was seen most recently in The First To Go at Edinburgh Lyceum and on tour.

tom mcgovern T

CHAE STRACHAN

om trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama where he was winner of the James Bridie Gold Medal. He also won the award for Best Performance in a Shakespeare play.

Most recently, his theatre credits have included Of Mice and Men at Perth Rep, St Joan and The Tempest in the USA, Volpone with Theatre Babel and Romeo and Juliet at Glasgow Citizens Theatre. He has worked with director Kenny Ireland on numerous occasions, including Treasure Island at the Belgrade Theatre and in several productions at Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum.

His television credits include The Reichenbach Falls, Taggart, Doctors, 2000 Acres of Sky, In Deep, Psychos, Looking After Jo Jo and Holby City.

alan mchugh A

LONG ROB

lan trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and, since graduating in 1991, has worked with most of the country’s leading theatre companies, including The Traverse, Citizens, Royal Lyceum, Dundee Rep, Perth Rep, The Byre and Borderline.

Although playing Long Rob Duncan in this tour, Alan played the role of Chae Strachan in the last national tour of Sunset Song by Prime Productions.

Recent work for His Majesty’s Theatre includes playing panto dame for the last four years and in their joint production of Tutti Frutti with the National Theatre of Scotland. And in addition to writing this year’s panto for HMT, he is also writing the annual pantos of RSAMD and the Adam Smith Theatre.

Recent film and television credits include Taggart, River City, Still Game, Dear Green Place and the BAFTA-nominated horror movie Wild Country.

heather nimmo B

AUNT JANET

orn in Irvine, Ayrshire, Heather has just graduated from the BA Acting course at Drama Centre London. And previous to that attended E15 Acting School foundation course.

Recent roles include, Susannah Hall in The Herbal Bed by Peter Whelan, Princess of France in Love's Labour's Lost and Nasatasya Ivananovna/Augusta Avdeyevna plus various roles in Keith Dewhurst’s adaptation of Black Snow by Mikail Bulgakov.

All at the Cochrane Theatre Holborn with Drama Centre London.

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sally reid

MARGET STRACHAN

Theatre includes The Wall (Borderline Tron TC – CATS award-winner 2008), Katie Morag (Mull Theatre), Antigone (Tron Theatre), The Crucible (TAG TC/NTS), Project Macbeth and Home Dundee (NTS), Weans In The Wood (Glasgow Tron), Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?, Romeo & Juliet, Top Girls, Cleo, Camping, Emanuelle & Dick, Snow White, and The Nun (Glasgow Citizens’), The Chrysalids (Complete TC), The BFG (St Andrews’ Byre), The Factory Girls (7:84 TC) and The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party (XLC TC).

Film and TV includes In The Dark (Dragon’s Lair), Unorganised Chaos (Dabhand Films). Radio includes Mr Paterson Comedy Unit for BBC Scotland and Sex for Volunteers for BBC4.

In 2004 was awarded the Dewar Arts Award, a bursary for further study which she spent with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago.

ronnie simon

REV. GIBBON

heatre includes: Great Expectations for Prime Productions, Cinderella for Perth Hamlet, Chimneys, A Woman of No Importance, Man of The Moment Tfor Theatre; Pitlochry Festival Theatre; Blood Wedding, Romeo and Juliet for The Citizens Theatre; Peter Stein’s production of The Seagull at The Kings Theatre for the Edinburgh International Festival; Broken for Solar Bear; Cyrano for Catherine Wheels; The Birthday Party, TAG Theatre Company; A View From The Bridge, Guys and Dolls, Victory, Taming of the Shrew, The Breathing House, A Street Car Named Desire, Comedy of Errors, Glengarry, Glen Ross, Merlin the Magnificent, Miseryguts all for the Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh; Diary of Somebody, Mermaid Theatre, London; Laurel and Hardy, Edinburgh/ N.Z. Festivals.

Television and Film includes: Tinsel Town (Series 1 & 2) for the BBC; Shepherd on the Rocks for Dandelion Films; Taggart for Scottish Television; Tales of Para Handy, Rab C Nesbitt, ‘Tis the Season to be Jolly for the BBC Comedy Unit.

Radio includes: Blind Mans’ Buff for Heartland FM; Mercury, Sulphur and Salt, Huntingtower for the BBC.

graeme stirling

EWAN TAVENDALE

raeme’s professional credits include Twelfth Night (Edinburgh Festival), The Six G Of Calais (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre) and two tours of Italy with Chicago and Much Ado About Nothing.

More recently, he performed in four new works for First Draft Theatre (all Kings Head Theatre Islington) and a rehearsed reading of Qissat a new play based on short stories by Palestinian women (Oval Theatre, director Hannah Price). His most recent role was Sawney Beane in an adaptation of Angela Carter’s Vampirella (King George IV Theatre).

His screen credits include DI Holmes in the Aberdeen-set short film Ill Gotten Gains (director Lewis McInnes).

Graeme trained at Webber Douglas Academy, London: credits included Jaques in As You Like It, Jeremy Bertrand in Three Birds Alighting On A Field and Hambro in Victory.

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aberdeen performing arts Board of Directors

Production

• Vice Chairman Councillor George Adam • Mrs Linda Barclay • Councillor Irene Cormack • Mr Buff Hardie • Mr Neil Jones • Mr Charles Kelly • Councillor Aileen Malone • Councillor Mark McDonald • Mr Ken McLeod • Councillor Alan Milne • Mrs Morag Pyper • Chairman Dr Graeme Roberts • Mrs Jennifer Shirreffs • Councillor Jennifer Stewart

• Production Manager Alan Campbell • Technical Stage Manager Chris Spikings • Deputy Stage Manager Pauline Skidmore • Assistant Stage Managers Jenny Simpson Lynne Cowie

Chief Executive Duncan Hendry

Sales & Marketing • Head of Sales & Marketing Shona Byrne • Marketing Assistants Chris Collins Martin Gallagher • Group Sales Sarah Harbison • Communications Officer Joyce Summers • Marketing Manager Lauren Taylor • Sales Manager Ben Torrie

Creative Team • Choreographer Andrew Panton • Assistant Choreographer Sally Rapier • Lighting Designer John Harris • Assistant Lighting Designer Cara Wiseman • Sound Designer Greig Dempster • Sound Engineer Craig Wallacae • Dialect Coach Ros Stein

His Majesty's Theatre Technical Department • Stage Manager Graeme Shepherd • Head Flyman Keith Whitelaw • Assistant Stage Manager Steve Young (Spike) • Chief Electrician Greig Dempster • Assistant Chief Electrician Paul Reynolds • Electrician Brian Gunee

Finance & Administration • Development Manager Lorna Christie • Education Assistant Johanna Duncan • Finance Assistant Dawn Eunson • Head of HR Ann Hopkin • Venue Manager Marianne Mackenzie • Clerical/Finance Assistant Shirley McGillivray • PA to Chief Executive Yvonne Johnston • Assistant Accountant Nicholas Pilichos • Administrative Assistant Ailson Polson • Head of Finance & IT Kathleen Scott • Programme Co-ordinator Doug Taylor

Aberdeen Performing Arts wishes to thank and mention: • Scottish Opera • Aberdeen Arts Centre • Tish Howard • Design Mearns & Gill • Photography Andy Hall • Bagpipes McCallum Bagpipes • The Gordon Highlanders Museum for supplying costumes • Steptoe’s Yard – Nether Warburton Farm, St Cyrus and Alford Heritage Centre for sourcing props and set dressing • Set Constructed by Pitlochry Festival Theatre workshops • Transport by Stagehire Scotland • Thanks to Gerry from Antiques at the Arches 12

The

Grassic Gibbon Centre

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Visitor Centre dedicated to the Scottish author Lewis Grassic Gibbon

TO STONEHAVEN & ABERDEEN (25 minutes)

A90 KINNEFF GRASSIC GIBBON CENTRE FORDOUN

B967

ARBUTHNOTT

• Exhibition • Coffee Shop • Gift Shop

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B967

TO FORFAR & DUNDEE (40 minutes)

Church

INVERBERVIE TO MONTROSE

The Grassic Gibbon Centre is located Open April-October 7 days 10am-4.30pm in north-east Scotland, 2 hours north Groups welcome by appointment of Edinburgh and 1/2 hour south of Aberdeen

Arbuthnott, Laurencekirk AB30 1PB Tel: 01561 361668 Email: lgginfo@grassicgibbon.com Registered Charity 13

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Friday 5 to Saturday 13 September His Majesty’s Theatre Rosemount Viaduct, Aberdeen

Tuesday 16 to Saturday 20 September King’s Theatre Bath Street, Glasgow

Tuesday 23 to Saturday 27 September Eden Court Theatre Bishops Road, Inverness

Tuesday 30 September to Saturday 4 October King’s Theatre Leven Street, Edinburgh

Tuesday 7 to Saturday 18 October Perth Theatre High Street, Perth