Sunshine on Leith
The Scotsman 6 May 2022 The scene is a wedding. Tying the knot is theatre director Ben Occhipinti. His friend and colleague Elizabeth Newman has volunteered to lead the congregation…
The Covid Requiem
The Guardian 17 September 2021 We’ve read about it in the papers. We’ve seen it analysed on TV. We’ve chatted about it in Zoom meetings. But it’s only now, after…
Black Diamonds and the Blue Brazil
The Guardian 21 July 2021 Who doesn’t love an underdog? When Brora Rangers played eight-times Scottish cup winners Hearts in March, they enjoyed a perfect David-and-Goliath victory. The part-time team…
The Wind in the Willows
The Guardian 10 July 2021 The National Trust should see about hiring Colin McCredie’s Mr Toad. When he gets his comeuppance in this jolly production, the owner of Toad Hall…
White Nights
The Guardian 9 July 2021 “I am alone,” says the narrator of Dostoevsky’s 1848 short story, a man who has had so little interaction with the world that he has…
Adventures with the Painted People
The Guardian 14 June 2021 Pitlochry Festival theatre already has a claim to be the most beautifully situated in the country. Now, with the advent of an outdoor amphitheatre deep…
Hindu Times
The Guardian 26 May 2021 Body-swap comedies are big in the cinema. From the mother-daughter switch of Freaky Friday to the boy who finds himself an adult in Big, Hollywood…
John Byrne: ‘If I don’t laugh when I’m writing, it gets tossed out’
The Guardian 21 April 2021 If you were in Edinburgh during the 1977 festival there were two shows you couldn’t miss. One was the revue Beyond a Joke starring a…
The Magic of Christmas
The Guardian, 10 December 2020 Elizabeth Newman is the director who wouldn’t give up. Prevented by the pandemic from staging a Christmas show indoors, she opted instead for a promenade…
Shades of Tay, Pitlochry Festival Theatre
The Guardian 31 August 2020 YOU can’t fault Pitlochry Festival theatre for industriousness. Under artistic director Elizabeth Newman, the company has channelled its energy into a prodigious online programme during…