From West End musicals to home-produced theatre, exclusive classical performances, top-rate comedians, legends of rock, emerging trad musicians, TV personalities, charming children’s shows and exciting community activities, there’s something for everyone to discover in Perth Theatre and Concert Hall’s July to December programme.
Perth Youth Theatre’s Summer School participants took time out of their week of workshops to launch the new season brochure with its four cover stars Jamie Cullum, Jeneba Kanneh-Mason, There’s A Place and Heathers the Musical.
Perth Concert Hall is one of only two Scottish venues to host smash hit West End musical, Heathers the Musical as it visits in late summer. Based on one of the greatest cult teen films of all-time, tickets are already selling fast for the high octane, black comedy rock musical set in Westerberg High, where popularity is so very a matter of life and death.
A new play based on the time when The Beatles performed in Dundee is one of the highlights of Perth Theatre’s autumn Season Subscription. Written by Gabriel Quigley and directed by Sally Reid, Perth Theatre’s production of There’s A Place follows a group of Beatlemaniacs as they camp out by Loch Earn in a desperate attempt to meet their heroes.
Thunder Road Theatre’s Shock Horror opens the Perth Theatre Season Subscription with a show inspired by classic theatre ghost stories and cinema’s greatest frights. Love Beyond, a Raw Material & Vanishing Point co-production in association with Aberdeen Performing Arts is a tender and visually stunning show about man with dementia who rediscovers his love for his wife. A company of actors sets out on an action-packed tour of the Highlands in Middle Ground Theatre’s Dial M for Mayhem. National Theatre of Scotland and Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s Enough of Him, explores the true story of African slave Joseph Knight.
Perth nightclub The Ice Factory goes back to the 80s for Shaper/Caper’s Small Town Boys, a captivating and moving new show set against the backdrop of Section 28 and the AIDS crisis. Two fans recreate the epic campaign that saw Jock Stein’s Celtic in the 1967 European Cup in On Our Way To Lisbon. To Save The Sea is a vibrant new musical about a group of Greenpeace activists occupying the Brent Spar oil store in the North Sea.
Perth Concert Hall’s Classical Stars series of exclusive Scottish performances by stellar performers gets off to a glittering start as Steven Osborne and Paul Lewis unite to play Schubert duets. Both pianists will reappear throughout the season which also includes performances by cellist Alban Gerhardt, violinist Alina Ibragimova and pianist Bertrand Chamayou as well as a genre defying concert by folk fiddler Aidan O’Rourke and classical guitarist Sean Shibe. Perth Concert Series concerts by Scotland’s national orchestras includes A Celebration of Dvořák featuring Steven Isserlis on cello with Scottish Chamber Orchestra, violinist Jennifer Pike joins the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra for Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto and pianist Lera Auerbach plays Mozart & Haydn with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Jeneba Kanneh-Mason joins the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra to play Rachmaninov’s 2nd Piano Concerto as part of Perth Concert Series International Orchestras series. Audiences can get to know the people behind the performances with new FREE pre-concert Classical Conversations on selected shows, led by Creative Director for Classical Music, James Waters.
Midge Ure, Jamie Cullum, Big Country, Hue and Cry, Fairground Attraction and Del Amitri are just some of the big names in music to look forward to at Perth Concert Hall, while traditional Scottish talent showcased on the Perth Concert Hall stage includes Dougie MacLean, Aly Bain and Phil Cunningham, and Blazin’ Fiddles. Emerging and established traditional musicians performing intimate shows in Perth Theatre’s Joan Knight Studio Sessions include True Gents, Flook, Jill Jackson, Martin Taylor & Alison Burns and James Grant. Audiences can take the floor to live Roma music in an energetic participatory Transylvanian Ceilidh.
There are laughs from Sarah Millican, John Bishop, Al Murray, The Pub Landlord and Janey Godley. Family entertainment features Steve Backshall’s Ocean, naughty, funny and revolting show Rude Science, and for little ones there is In The Night Garden Live and The Gruffalo.
Perth Theatre and Concert Hall continue their celebration of the Polish community’s contribution to the cultural life of Perth & Kinross with a performance by the Choir of the Collegium Medicum Nicolaus Copernicus University from Perth twin city Bydgoszcz, and screenings of classic Polish film A Bear Named Wojtek in Gaelic, Polish and English. Centrum Edukacyjne Bajka CIC presents distinctive Polish artist Patrycja Markowska in Perth Theatre, top Roma musicians gather to host a Transylvanian Ceilidh in the Joan Knight Studio and Polish violinist Maria Wloszczowska performs with Perth pianist Alasdair Beatson.
Perth Film Society celebrate their 25th anniversary with a festival weekend of talks, screenings and special events, and families can look forward to a cracking Christmas as Perth Theatre’s panto team presents festive favourite Mother Goose.
Christopher Glasgow, Director of Perth Theatre and Concert Hall said:
“Our new season spans generations, countries and genres, offering an enthralling mix of mainstream talent, international artists, home-produced work and community events. If variety is indeed the spice of life, then what we have to offer will satisfy even the most discerning of palates! I can’t wait to share our colourful brochures with our audiences and chat through programme highlights and favourites with them as they visit our venues. We are forever grateful for the loyalty of our customers, not only for those who attend big name gigs but also those who trust the quality of our programming to the extent where they are prepared to take a chance on seeing less familiar work.”
For tickets and information about the new season in Perth Theatre and Concert Hall visit perththeatreandconcerthall.com, or call or visit the Perth Theatre Box Office (01738 621031, Tue – Sat: 10:00 – 18:00).
