VELVET Evening Séance is not your average courtroom drama.
The tale of James MacGregor, a spiritualist in Victorian Scotland, on trial for the murder of his brother, heads to Edinburgh for the Fringe this August.
Without wanting to give too much of the plot away, the show sees the accused put his talents to the fore by using a loophole in Scots law to call the star witness – his deceased sibling.
Fringe First award-winning theatre-maker Ross MacKay and multi award-winning playwright Suzie Miller are the creatives behind the show about death and dying.
However, the play also marks the birth of a new production company from Aberdeen, the first professional theatre firm in the city.
For bosses at Aberdeen Performing Arts – the trust that looks after His Majesty’s Theatre, the Music Hall and the Lemon Tree – setting up Freshly Squeezed Productions was a step that has been a long time coming, and Velvet Evening Séance was a natural fit for their first show.
APA’s Head of Production and Technical Lesley Anne Rose said there were big plans for the company to “produce a steady stream of professional shows”.
For those with an interest in making a living from the performing arts – creatives, technical, producers and the like – there often hasn’t been enough work in the city, forcing graduates to head down to Glasgow, Edinburgh and London.
“There are artists that we’ve worked with in the the past who’ve said they love to come and and be based here but they often struggle to get the work,” Rose said.
But the establishment of Freshly Squeezed – helped by a dip in the city’s extortionate rents and house prices – could see that change.
Velvet Evening Séance,will be performed at Assembly Hall for the duration of Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
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