National Theatre of Scotland

An Appointment with the Wicker Man

Robin Hardy’s 1973 classic to become the play-within-the-play for new NTS production

1 Feb 2012

‘There are many films that people would love to see adapted cleanly onto the stage,’ says Greg Hemphill, and if current trends are anything to go by, he looks to be right, ‘but when we discussed it with Vicky [Featherstone, National Theatre of Scotland…

Best of 2011: Theatre

The best theatre work of 2011, including The Age of Arousal and The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Har

14 Dec 2011

The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart. The story of the overly curious girl/boy who encounters the Devil is as old as theatre itself, but David Greig’s inspired play-cum-ceilidh brought a dynamic twist to the Border Ballad form. Touring pubs around the…

Theatre critic Mark Fisher on the Shakespeare productions planned for 2012

Alan Cumming, David Hayman and more to stage the Bard next year

13 Dec 2011

In 1964, the Polish critic Jan Kott published Shakespeare, our Contemporary. The book caused a stir for framing a long-dead playwright through the lens of 20th century totalitarianism. Director Peter Brook was delighted to find a commentator who could…

A Christmas Carol

Dickens' festive spook story is given a compelling and creepy outing by Graham McLaren

7 Dec 2011

Scrooge and Marley’s gloomy office. Dangerous cables loop across the ceiling, piles of dusty papers fill the walls. As we enter in twos and threes to a whooping, fussing welcome, Scrooge himself – a grizzled figure in shrunken tailcoat and slippers…

Alan Cumming to perform free show at Glasgow's King’s Theatre

Scots-born actor in NTS show combining discussion and performance

18 Nov 2011

For Scots-born actor Alan Cumming, a single performance at the King’s Theatre Glasgow on Saturday 26th November, will mark a return to his roots in more ways than one. Panto, Variety and the Scottish People, will see Cumming delve into Scotland’s…

The Missing

Powerful performance of Andrew O'Hagan's non-fiction script across several platforms

21 Sep 2011

Part memoir, part investigative journalism, Scottish writer Andrew O’Hagan’s powerful non-fiction work doesn’t easily fit into any generic pigeon hole. It is fitting, then, that this stage adaptation of The Missing is accompanied by complementary art…

2011 Arches Live! theatre programme is biggest yet

Over 30 performances of challenging theatre and live art

24 Aug 2011

As Edinburgh’s yearly festivities wind down, Glasgow’s Arches steps up with another packed out schedule of new, challenging theatre and live art. Often regarded as a platform for exciting young Scottish artists, 2011’s Arches Live! programme is the…

The Missing

John Tiffany's National Theatre of Scotland production of Andrew O’Hagan book

23 Aug 2011

‘The passage of time has been really necessary. I needed to get some distance,’ says Andrew O’Hagan. He is referring to the 14 years which have passed since John Tiffany (then literary manager at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh, now associate director…

The Wheel

Innocence lost in war-torn Spain

11 Aug 2011

When we think about war, it is the civilian casualties or soldiers who lose their lives we remember. The children whose innocence is stripped from them, observing the horrors that surround a war zone rarely, if ever, get a mention. In the west, we worry…

Five Minute Theatre hosts 200 pieces of theatre over 24 hours

National Theatre of Scotland's ambitious live-streaming project

21 Jun 2011

At 5pm on Tuesday 21st June, a global event will begin. Lasting 24 hours, there will be over two hundred online broadcasts of live performances created by anyone who wants to take part and viewed by a worldwide audience. As a celebration of the National…

Edinburgh International Book Festival 2011 line up highlights

Grant Morrison, Will Self and Jo Nesbø among highlights

16 Jun 2011

A selection of international authors, a bunch of Scottish novelists, an array of top non-fiction scribes, a host of children’s writers and a series of exciting innovations: yes, it’s just another Edinburgh International Book Festival programme. A cliché…

Critics' Awards for Theatre in Scotland announce 2011 shortlist

Kate Dickie, David Birrell and David Greig feature on CATS 2011 shortlist

12 May 2011

Following an all-day meeting at the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh, the CATS judges have revealed the hotly-anticipated shortlist for the ten categories of Scotland's leading theatre awards for 2010-11. A highlight of the Scottish theatre…

The reviewers reviewed: Theatre show Girl X

Who said what about NTS discourse on disability and sexuality

28 Mar 2011

National Theatre of Scotland's latest work is a discourse on disability and sexuality has its roots in reality (see our full review for more info). Here's what we and some of the other critics had to say about it. What we said: ‘Although the subject…

New production Girl X tackles ethics of Ashley X disability case

National Theatre of Scotland’s hard-hitting new play at Traverse

24 Feb 2011

About four years ago, performer and disability rights activist Robert Softley came to the National Theatre of Scotland with an unusual proposition. He’d been following the case of Ashley X, a pre-pubescent disabled girl in the US whose parents filed an…

Glasgow’s Tramway among winners at 2010 GaGA Awards

National Theatre of Scotland also win at Glasgow audience development awards

4 Feb 2011

Thursday’s GaGAs 2010 highlighted some of the outstanding achievements of Scottish cultural organisations over the past year. The awards are part of organisers Culture Sparks’ ongoing endeavour to encourage intelligence and innovation throughout…

The Company Will Overlook a Moment of Madness

Adaptation of Rodolfo Santana's breakthrough play

26 Jan 2011

This Spring’s A Play, A Pie and A Pint season features a cross-city collaboration between Glasgow’s Oran Mor and the National Theatre of Scotland’s Reveal season at the Traverse in Edinburgh. Featuring five new adaptations of Latin American plays, it…

The Strange Undoing Of Prudencia Hart gives a voice to the Borders

The National Theatre of Scotland focuses on traditional Scottish pieces this season

26 Jan 2011

The National Theatre of Scotland’s just-announced season feels even more particularly Scottish than usual this year, with a number of pieces tapping into old traditions. Alongside the exciting looking revivals of classics like Knives in Hens and Men…

Caledonia

History repeating itself

23 Aug 2010

There is a moment in Alistair Beaton’s new play that creates a collective audible intake of breath from its audience. It is the point where Paul Higgins’ deluded huckster of a banker announces that his private corporation is now bigger than the state…

EIF show Caledonia discusses banking and Scottish nationalism

Darien colony tale retold at Edinburgh International Festival

11 Aug 2010

The last time the National Theatre of Scotland was on an Edinburgh International Festival stage they told, in 365, small, beautiful half-stories about teenagers, played by unknown actors - living in the forgotten corners of public life. That was in…

Beautiful Burnout - knockout collaboration a success on all fronts

Raging bulls come to the Fringe

8 Aug 2010

The new play about aspiring young boxers by Bryony Lavery (author of last year’s Kursk and Tony award nominee for Frozen) is a heavy-hitter in more ways than one. It’s a co-production between the National Theatre of Scotland and Frantic Assembly that…

Beautiful Burnout unites physical theatre with world of boxing

Frantic Assembly and National Theatre of Scotland collaboration

16 Jul 2010

Marking the first co-production between Frantic Assembly and the National Theatre of Scotland, this piece of highly physical theatre has been written by Bryony Lavery whose past credits include A Wedding Story, Breathing Underwater and Her Aching Heart.

National Theatre of Scotland presents Peter Pan

4 May 2010

It’s hard to know who the National Theatre of Scotland’s target audience is for this much anticipated production of Peter Pan. Certainly not families with children who, drawn by the title, will head to this in their droves and inevitably be…

The National Theatre of Scotland tackle Peter Pan

15 Apr 2010

As the National Theatre of Scotland mounts its biggest production to date, Kelly Apter discusses the enduring appeal of Peter Pan with Hook actor Cal MacAninch

John Adams and Lee Breuer among Edinburgh International Festival 2010 highlights

22 Mar 2010

As the programme is launched for this year’s Edinburgh International Festival, we cast an eye over the highlights

National Theatre of Scotland's tfd season targets teenage audience

23 Feb 2010

‘Teenagers aren’t aliens, they’re just us but younger.’ It’s a fact easily forgotten but one that playwright Rob Drummond and the rest of the team behind a new season for young people from the National Theatre of Scotland are keeping firmly in mind.

NTS history and Gutter magazine latest National Library of Scotland events

1 Feb 2010

Eagle-eyed readers of the Around Town listings may have already noticed that change is afoot at the National Library of Scotland. Over the last few months, there have been an increasing number of interesting, well thought-out, exciting and downright…

Arches Off-Site

20 Jan 2010

Forget being entertained from the comfort of a velvety chair in an auditorium. Recent theatre performances in underground vaults, toilet cubicles or lifts have opened Scottish audiences’ eyes to the added value that site specific and promenade…

Long Gone Lonesome

19 Jan 2010

Vicky Featherstone’s production for the National Theatre of Scotland reaches the end of its Scottish tour with a couple of performances at the Tron as part of Celtic Connections. Duncan McLean’s piece of musical theatre tells the story of Thomas Fraser…

Promises Promises - Douglas Maxwell interview

12 Jan 2010

With The Miracle Man, his play for the NTS slated to open in March, Douglas Maxwell will be in familiar territory. Spotty trauma, adolescent angst and the icky business of entering into the adult world are house themes for Maxwell, and this new work, in…

Big Picture: Wall of Death - A Way of Life

8 Jan 2010

A treat for all those who love a spectacle as the National Theatre of Scotland joins forces with visual artist Stephen Skrynka. The artist’s learning to ride the Wall of Death with the world-famous Ken Fox Troupe inspired this stunning multi-media…

2010 preview: Great expectations

7 Jan 2010

Favourite things are ending, exciting things are beginning and old things are coming back. 2010 is already shaping up to be a thrilling year and here are the 30 good reasons why we can’t wait

Blipfoto, Channel 4, NTS and Scottish Screen launch photography competition

7 Jan 2010

With the New Year’s resolutions now in full swing, daily photo blogging community Blipfoto has teamed up with Channel 4, the National Theatre of Scotland and Scottish Screen to create a unique international photography competition. With followers and…

Curtain up

7 Jan 2010

The National Theatre of Scotland has launched its programme for 2010, with highlights including a new piece of work by the team behind worldwide hit Black Watch. In line with the company’s ethos of working with a variety of art forms, in February and…

Best of a decade: Respectable in the Noughties

2 Dec 2009

Much of the most powerful art produced in Scotland in the 1980s–1990s developed in angry reaction to the political situation and tapped into our radical, left-wing and egalitarian traditions – it’s no accident that the most popular works of that period…

Best of a decade: Black Watch premieres in Edinburgh

2 Dec 2009

Every decade, there seems to be one cultural event that shifts the way we Scots look at ourselves, and the way the world looks at us. In the 1990s, there was the Trainspotting juggernaut: book, play, film, tie-in-soundtrack, poster. In the 2000s, what…

Natalie Merchant, The Chieftains and Ry Cooder set for Celtic Connection 2010

30 Oct 2009

Celtic Connections launched with a suitable level of expectation this fortnight – and it doesn’t look set to disappoint. Comprising 1500 artists, 300 concerts, ceilidhs, talks, workshops, free events and late-night sessions, the programme of events will…

Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival 2009 launches

10 Sep 2009

Singer Karine Polwart is just one of the many names putting her name – and voice – behind this year’s Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival. Now in its third year, the festival explores mental health in its broadest sense with almost 200 events…

Festival of Politics tackles devolution and the Arts

James Kelman, Vicky Featherstone and Germaine Greer on bill

6 Aug 2009

The Scottish Parliament’s annual festival of issues and debate is back again, with lectures on everything from the legality of Facebook to diabetes and time travel. Other events catching our beady little eyes include a discussion on Devolution and the…

Best of the Rest - Politics

Political highlights at the Edinburgh Festivals

13 Jul 2009

Highlights include Annie Lennox and the SING campaign, From Darwin to Dolly: And Beyond, A Life in Politics: Dennis Canavan, Devolution and the Arts, Young Peoples Question Time, Burns' Radical Voice and Love But Her

Peer Gynt

14 May 2009

Colin Teevan’s irreverent adaptation of Ibsen’s classic play returns to the scene of its original triumph with a brief run at Dundee Rep before embarking on a tour of Scottish cities over the next couple of months. This thrilling, energetic…

Be Near Me

19 Mar 2009

The story of a priest who stirs up a riot of anti-Catholic feeling in a Protestant Ayrshire town after a drunken fumble with a teenage boy might not instantly sound like it would travel well outside the west of Scotland or Ireland. But, since its…

Nobody Will Ever Forgive Us

27 Nov 2008

NEW PLAY It’s hard to shake off the feeling that this final production in the National Theatre of Scotland’s series of Traverse Debuts is set in a bygone era. The story of a young man returning home from the seminary, disillusioned with Catholicism…

Eye to the future at the end of the line for Edinburgh Festival 2008

Alan Bissett's festival blog

27 Aug 2008

Ah, the end of the Fringe. Goodbye rain. Goodbye bright-eyed young hopefuls thrusting flyers. Goodbye posh accents. How was it for you? Depending on who you talk to, plays this year have been too bleak/political/teenage. Given the gloomy political…

365

Magical reflection on children in care

26 Aug 2008

The idea of a play about children in care might not immediately strike you as the an entertaining festival night out, but overcome your prejudices. Vicky Featherstone’s production of David Harrower’s script for the NTS touches upon the issues that…

365 - One Night to Learn a Lifetime

Shock tactics

21 Aug 2008

With 365, a series of fragmented narratives about children leaving care, Vicky Featherstone’s National Theatre of Scotland cements its commitment to telling stories of the people. Kirstin Innes meets the cast, writer and director. Lunchtime, and…

Best of the rest - Edinburgh International Festival

Edinburgh International Festival

22 Jul 2008

Giselle. Under the artistic direction of Nina Ananiashvili, the State Ballet of Georgia will be performing what many view as the definitive interpretation of this romantic ballet. Gabriela Montero Two performances here from the superb Venezuelan…

Little Otik - Sandy Grierson

22 May 2008

‘It’s a bit of wood!’ ‘That’s my baby!’ ‘It’s a bit of wood!’ ‘My BABY!’ The air in the Citizens’ Theatre is thick with the smell of peat, spread all over the stage where actors Sandy Grierson and Louisa Ludgate are rehearsing what, taken out of…

The Emperor’s New Kilt

24 Apr 2008

CHILDREN’S THEATRE Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Thu 24–Sat 26 Apr It’s hard to know who to praise most for this clever, funny and engaging show. There is not a single weak link to be found. The intelligent script blends humour, pathos and insightful…

New work and literary adaptations form the back bone of the National Theatre’s season

18 Apr 2008

The National Theatre of Scotland have just announced their 08/09 season, a programme dominated by emergent theatre makers and literary adaptations. John Tiffany will direct 'Be Near Me', an adaptation of Scottish writer Andrew O’Hagan’s hugely acclaimed…

Black Watch

10 Apr 2008

WORLD TOUR Rothes Hall, Glenrothes, until Sat 5 Apr, then touring While many Scots disagree with the continuing troop presence in Iraq, there remains an undeniable sense of pride in and anxiety for our troops overseas, and it’s this sense of a shared…

The Emperor’s New Kilt

10 Apr 2008

CHILDREN’S THEATRE King’s Theatre, Edinburgh, Sat 12–Sat 19 Apr, then touring When Hans Christian Andersen first penned The Emperor’s New Clothes in 1837, he was issuing a veiled attack on the excesses of the Danish church. Many years later…

Edinburgh International Festival programme unveiled

2 Apr 2008

This year’s Edinburgh International Festival will take the changes and challenges facing contemporary Europe as its theme, it was announced today. Highlights of the programme include the world premiere of Matthew Bourne’s new dance work ‘Dorian…

Black Watch - John Tiffany

27 Mar 2008

Certainly the most phenomenal success produced by the Scottish theatre for a couple of decades, Greg Burke’s Black Watch has travelled the world since its first appearance at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2006. New York, Sydney, Los Angeles – it has become…

Black Watch conquers the Big Apple

25 Oct 2007

Black Watch, the National Theatre of Scotland’s production which criticises US army tactics in Iraq, has opened to rave reviews in the Big Apple. The New Yorkers taking in the premiere at Brooklyn’s St Ann’s Warehouse were overwhelmed by the hard…

Black Watch to be posted to Australia

21 Sep 2007

Black Watch, the hit play from the National Theatre of Scotland, has been booked for an Australasian tour, following its successful first outing outside Scotland. The award-winning production, which is currently showing at the UCLA Live international…

Peer Gynt - preview

20 Sep 2007

Dominic Hill’s last project at Dundee Rep, here combining its resources with the National Theatre of Scotland, shows no lack of ambition. The soon-to-be artistic director of the Traverse has chosen a complex, picaresque classic full of incident as his…

Black Watch to march across US

19 Sep 2007

Black Watch, the National Theatre of Scotland production which proved a massive hit when it premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe last year, has opened to rave reviews in Los Angeles. It was the first time Gregory Burke’s play had been performed…

Half Life - interview with Angus Farquhar

6 Sep 2007

It doesn’t take long in conversation with Angus Farquhar to realise that he’s not a great fan of Time Team. The artistic supremo of NVA has, for a good few years now, presided over a succession of multi arts projects, which might sit as comfortably…

Aalst

Tramway, Glasgow and on tour

27 Mar 2007

NEW TRANSLATION If you like your theatre cosy, comfortable and reassuring, don’t go within a mile of Aalst. A collaboration between Pol Heyvaert’s Belgian Victoria company and the National Theatre of Scotland, Aalst is the harrowing true-life tale of…

CATS Awards

3 Jan 2007

AWARDS ROUND UP We’re about at half term for the awards season, with the CATS Awards occurring in early June this year. So far, the chatter among the critics has covered a great variety of work, from grand scale projects to more modest pieces. It’s a…