Restless Natives
The Guardian 30 April 2025 One of the stories British cinema loves to tell is of working-class characters defeating the privations of Thatcherism using wit and creativity. In Brassed Off…
The Rainbow
The Guardian 3 April 2025 Adapting a novel is rarely straightforward and playwright Nicola Werenowska takes a particularly enterprising stab at it in her version of the DH Lawrence classic.…
There’s a Place
The Scotsman 8 October 2024 In Perth Theatre’s rehearsal room, they have made a display of early-1960s paraphernalia. It is to get the cast in the mood for There’s A…
Oliver Emanuel obituary
The Guardian 2 January 2024 Oliver Emanuel, who has died aged 43 from brain cancer, was a playwright, teacher and radio dramatist who put his name to some of the…
A guide to modern panto
Published in The List 3 November 2023 If the culture wars were an actual thing rather than the delusions of some Tory sociopaths, where would pantomime be in the battle?…
Ann Marie Di Mambro on Tally’s Blood
The Scotsman 5 September 2023 Ann Marie Di Mambro teaches on a television writing course at Glasgow Caledonian University. She gives her students one crucial piece of advice. As she…
Educating Rita
The Scotsman 3 March 2023 Willy Russell’s Educating Rita is a comedy about a clash of cultures. On one hand, there is Frank, the worldly professor, bookish and secure. On…
Jack and the Beanstalk
The Guardian 27 November 2022 The temperature is rising in Middle Perth. Nobody says it in so many words but the opening salvo of songs tells you all you need…
Don Quixote: Man Of Clackmannanshire
The Scotsman 7 Sep 2022 The latest collaboration between Perth Theatre and Dundee Rep has had a slow gestation. The arrestingly titled Don Quixote: Man Of Clackmannanshire started life in…
Oh When The Saints: Bringing St Johnstone’s Scottish Cup triumph to the stage
The Scotsman 21 May 2022 Sometimes you get so used to defeat that the possibility of victory is scary. That is the case for Bobby, a supporter of St Johnstone…