DO you believe in ferry tales? The National Theatre of Scotland (NTS) is to embark on a dramatic journey – by performing on passenger boats.
The company will tread the boards onboard vessels travelling around the coast next spring.
Part of its 2020 programme, Ferry Tales will run on three routes and is billed as a “charming celebration of the waters surrounding Scotland’s western isles and the voyages over them made by thousands of locals, workers and visitors”.
The year-long programme also includes a Scots-language adaptation of classical Greek tragedy Medea by Liz Lochhead, and two productions related to Scotland’s slave trade past.
“Emotional” multimedia project Ghosts by Adura Onashile – who will also star in Medea – will use a free augmented reality app to send audiences on a tour of Glasgow to reveal its “unspoken” history and introduce them to “the ghosts of the city’s painful past and its effects on the present”.
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Meanwhile, the story of freedman Joseph Knight, who was brought to Scotland as a slave by a plantation owner and achieved legal emancipation after a bitter court battle, will be told in Enough of Him, which will open at Pitlochry Festival Theatre before touring to Perth and Edinburgh.
John McGrath’s celebrated play The Cheviot, the Stag, and the Black Black Oil will return for a new Scottish tour.
And a “provocative” and "timely” new adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's play An Enemy of the People will stage that story in a “once-proud” industrial community in a town hall tour.
The NTS adaptation of Swedish child vampire hit Let The Right One In will also return for new performances in Seoul, South Korea.
NTS acting artistic director Caroline Newall said: “We believe that theatre matters now more than ever. We take great pride and reassurance in looking to a nation of artists who can reflect the times in which we are living back at us, and help us imagine new possibilities for society.
“We remain committed to the people, places and passions that are unique to Scotland and enable us as a nation to celebrate the diversity and strength of our culture, despite the wider uncertainties we face.
“Our 2020 programme features a line-up of heroic and sometimes villainous characters, real and imagined, through whose eyes we can view Scotland’s complex past and present. We celebrate the unique talent of Scotland’s artists and their ability to use new and ancient myths and stories to comment on our future.”
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