Alan Cumming announces inaugural season as Artistic Director of Pitlochry Festival Theatre

Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s Artistic Director, Alan Cumming has announced his highly anticipated inaugural season of exciting programming for 2026, which will coincide with the 75^th anniversary of the celebrated Scottish Highland Theatre.

The Season 2026 will feature a programme of creatively bold and inventive productions, featuring amongst others, world premières, Scottish and UK premières, revivals of musicals and plays, a visiting production and two exciting festivals.

Throughout the season, the theatre will welcome an incredible line up of Scottish, British and internationally renowned award–winning talent to the Scottish Highlands for what promises to be a theatrical highlight for Scotland in 2026.

Productions will include the musicals Once directed by John Tiffany and choreographed by Steven Hoggett and Lerner and Loewe’s My Fair Lady directed by Maria Friedman and featuring Alan Cumming as Henry Higgins; premières of the new plays I’ll Be Seeing You by Martin Sherman, directed byAlan Cumming and featuring Simon Russell Beale and Fra Fee; I Can Die Too by Frances Ruffelle, Sally George and Alan Cumming,co-produced with Lovechild productions; Inexperience by Scottish playwright Douglas Maxwell featuring Adura Onashile and Sandy Grierson and the UK première of the new immersive musical CEILIDH written by the Scottish writing team Scott Gilmour andClaire McKenzie (Noisemaker) and directed by Tony award-winner Sam Pinkleton (Oh Mary!, Broadway and the forthcoming revival of The Rocky Horror Show).

The exciting Season 2026 will also feature new productions of Oliver Emanuel and Gareth Williams’ beautiful A History of Paper featuring Alan Cumming and Shirley Henderson and directed by CATS award-winning director Andrew Panton, co–produced with Dundee Rep Theatre; William Shakespeare’s Lear directed and adapted by Finn den Hertog featuring Maureen Beattie as the monarch and Forbes Masson as Gloucester; Iain Heggie’s fearless and provocative play Wiping My Mother’s Arse and the National Theatre of Scotland production of David Harrower’s stage adaptation of Muriel Spark’s’ novel The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, featuring Gayle Rankin and directed by Vicky Featherstone. The production is presented in partnership with The Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh and in association with Pitlochry Festival Theatre.

Alan Cumming, Artistic Director of Pitlochry Festival Theatre said today:

“My first season of programmed work as Artistic Director in 2026 also happens to be the 75^th anniversary of Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s founding by a man named John Stewart, who came here during the Second World War and made a promise to himself that he would return and build a theatre. 

I have found I have a great affinity with John: we both came to Pitlochry and were mesmerised, we both share a belief in dreaming big and the power of positivity and manifestation. And for my first season, just as he did in 1951, I have invited people here who I admire and love, and who have been part of the theatrical journey that led me to becoming this theatre’s Artistic Director.

The potential of Pitlochry Festival Theatre is boundless and we have a passionate and proud staff who are ready to share the adventure ahead with me. And so, in 2026 I hope you’lljoin us all for a season of work that is a homage to John Stewart’s legacy and spirit: one of boldness, of daring, and of manifesting a dream.

THE SEASON IN FULL (in chronological order)

• Season 2026 to open with the Scottish première of the Tony and Olivier award-winning musical Once featuring the original Broadway creative team of director John Tiffany (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, West End and Broadway), choreographer Steven Hoggett (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night–Time, West End and Broadway), designer Bob Crowley (An American in Paris and The History Boys, Broadway and West End) and musical director Martin Lowe (War Horse, National Theatre). (23 May – 27 June)
• Award-winning actor Sally Reid to direct Adura Onashile (Medea, National Theatre of Scotland) and Sandy Grierson(Make it Happen, National Theatre of Scotland) in the world première of Inexperience, Scottish playwright Douglas Maxwell’s witty and heartfelt romantic new comedy about touch, memory, and the choices that shape a life. (13 June – 4 July). Inexperience is supported by Aberfeldy Single Malt.
• Maureen Beattie (Deadwater Fell, ITV) leads the company in Lear, director Finn den Hertog’s (The Fifth Step, National Theatre of Scotland) bold new adaptation of William Shakespeare’s King Lear. Cast to also feature Forbes Masson (The High Life, BBC Scotland and Much Ado About Nothing, Jamie Lloyd Productions at Theatre Royal Drury Lane). (4 July – 1 August). Lear is supported by PITLOCHRYhotels.com
• Bill Buckhurst (Sister Act, West End and Sweeney Todd, West End & New York) to direct the world première of Tony Winner Frances Ruffelle (Best known for playing Eponine in the original London and Broadway production of Les Misérables), Sally George and Alan Cumming’s I Can Die Too, a concert-style play with music inspired by Cocteau’s La Voix Humaine. Co-produced with Lovechild Productions. Frances Ruffelle will feature in the production (11 July – 2 August).
• Alan Cumming and Shirley Henderson(The Girl from the North Country, Old Vic Theatre and West End for which she won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical, and films including Harry Potter and Bridget Jones) to reunite for a new production of A History of Paper. Written by Oliver Emanuel with music by Gareth Williams (creators of The 306 Trilogy, National Theatre of Scotland), the production will be directed by Dundee Rep Theatre’s award-winning Artistic Director Andrew Panton (Make It Happen, National Theatre of Scotland, The Glass Menagerie, Dundee Rep Theatre, Citizens Theatre, Royal Lyceum Theatre). The production will be presented as a co-production with Dundee Rep Theatre. (8 August – 12 September)
• Iain Heggie’s fearless and provocative play about parental care, Wiping My Mother’s Arse to be revived for the first time since its original run at the Traverse Theatre in 2001. Production to be directed by Sam Hardie and will feature Scottish writer, director, and actorJohnny McKnight in its cast. (15 August – 6 September)
• Alan Cumming to direct Simon Russell Beale (The Lehman Trilogy, The Hollow Crown: Henry IV, Parts 1 & 2 and The Death of Stalin) and Fra Fee ( Hawkeye, Disney + and Prime Target, Apple TV) in the world première of Martin Sherman’s (Bent, The Boy from Oz and Mrs Henderson Presents) new play I’ll Be Seeing You, which tells the story of a young gay playwright writing a new play about the legendary pianist and singer Liberace (12 September – 11 October).
• Tony award winner Sam Pinkleton (Oh Mary! Broadway and West End) to direct the UK première of the new immersive musical CEILIDH. Written by the Scottish writing duo Scott Gilmour and Claire McKenzie (Noisemaker), the new musical will open the doors to one of the nation’s oldest and most loved traditions. Tickets go on sale in 2026. (24 September – 17 October).
• David Harrower’s adaptation of Muriel Spark’s The Prime of Miss Jean Brodiefeaturing Gayle Rankin (Glow and House of the Dragon) and directed by Vicky Featherstone is set to visit the Theatre in early November. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is A National Theatre of Scotland Production, presented in partnership with The Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh and in association with Pitlochry Festival Theatre. (4-7 November)
• Season 2026 to end with Olivier award-winning actor and director Maria Friedman(Merrily We Roll Along, Broadway) directing Alan Cumming as Henry Higgins in a new revival of Lerner and Loewe’s iconic musical My Fair Lady (21 November – 31 December).

Further productions in the Theatre’s outdoor performance spaces will be announced in the coming months.

As well as an exciting line up of theatre productions, Pitlochry Festival Theatre will be staging new festival in January 2026 – Out in the Hills, a bold, inclusive celebration of LGBTQIA+ voices and creative expression which will feature Ian McKellen, Graham Norton, Alan Cumming and authors Val McDermid, Jackie Kay and Armistead Maupin (16–18 January) and will also see the return of the Theatre’s annual literature festival Winter Words (12–15 February).

In 2026, Pitlochry Festival Theatre is set to “share Pitlochry with the world, and the world with Pitlochry”.

Priority booking for Members and Patrons starts from Thursday 13 November at 12pmwith public booking opening on Thursday 27 November at 10am.  Booking for CEILIDHopens in 2026. For further information visit here…