Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s 2022 Summer Season has begun with a fabulous
feel-good musical.
Sunshine on Leith’s bound to be a hit, featuring as it does the songs of the much-loved Scottish band The Proclaimers.
Everyone is beginning 2022 on an optimistic note with Sunshine on Leith the first production to be staged in the theatre’s auditorium for over two years.
Sunshine on Leith has PFT’s artistic director Elizabeth Newman and associate director Ben Occhipinti taking the reins together in what will be a co-production with another leading theatre.
It’s currently partway through a brief opening burst of shows in Pitlochry, playing in Perthshire until Thursday this week, before heading to King’s Theatre in Edinburgh for a spell from June 7-18.
Then from June 24, the cast are back on the boards of Pitlochry Theatre right through until October.
Originally staged at Dundee Rep in 2007 before being transformed in to the 2013 smash-hit feature film adaptation starring Jane Horrocks and Peter Mullan, Sunshine on Leith sees the return of service members Davy and Ally from war overseas, to be confronted with civilian life filled with relationships, blind dates, and new responsibilities.
As the pair embark on intertwining journeys in love, they begin to question what home really means to them as they rediscover their sense of identity. The PA spoke to Rachael McAllister who plays Hazel in the production. Rachael was last seen at PFT back in 2018 in A Christmas Carol.
She is part of the Pitlochry 2022 ensemble with parts as Brooke in Noises Off and Jo in Little Women.
“To get back into the swing of normal work with something like this, well it’s an actor’s dream,” said Rachael. “I was supposed to be in Gypsy in Pitlochry’s 2020 season but that was cancelled. We all felt heartbroken.
“I kept in contact through the Light, Hope and Joy series of online broadcasts put out by the PFT team, but I am so happy now to be back for real.
“My parents were always taking me to see shows in Pitlochry when I was growing up. We lived in Cumbernauld, so it wasn’t too far.
“In this show I play Hazel. She’s a tough and sassy person, a bit of a matriarch. She looks after the other female character, Jean.”
One of the stand-out features of Sunshine on Leith is going to be the costumes.
“I’m not exaggerating when I say that the wardrobe department at PFT is the best in the world,” said Rachael.
“Everybody looks so good, so comfortable in their outfits. The wardrobe guys have done us proud.”
And she’s pretty taken with the setting for her summer job too: “The theatre is in such a beautiful location.
“I feel so lucky, my dressing room window is enormous, looking out on the bright green canopy of trees with the river just there.
“Doing Sunshine on Leith feels like the antidote to the last two years. The message of the show is so relevant. We are all coming out the other side of something enormous.
“There’s a wonderful band on stage, it brings the whole show to life. People are taken over by the joy of hearing those familiar Proclaimers songs. I can’t imagine the audience leaving at the end without feeling renewed.”
Director Elizabeth Newman was referring to one of the songs by the Proclaimers that will have audiences on their feet when she quipped: “It certainly feels like we’ve walked 500 miles to come back together, and I couldn’t think of a better song for us to be singing as we welcome people back indoors.”
Tickets for Sunshine on Leith are available from the box office on 01796 484626 or online at pitlochryfestivaltheatre.
com
