In February and March I will be playing the male lead in the UK tour of “Passing Through”, a new romantic comedy by Alistair Rutherford.

I have produced the play myself with my own company Peapod Productions. The last play I produced by Alistair received critical acclaim and packed houses. Hopefully we can repeat that success with this new production!

“Passing Through”
A new romantic comedy by Alistair Rutherford

Directed by Andy Corelli
Music by Brendan Musk
Produced by Peapod Productions

Cast: Anna Guthrie and Philip Kingscott

Passing Through is set on a wet winter’s night. At the Dockers Social Club there’s been a terrible mistake. They booked ‘The Ace of Spades’ thinking it was a Motorhead tribute band, but they got Tommy the Magician instead. Tommy made a sharp exit and is nursing a pint and a bruised ego in the pub down the road when Alice stomps in from the rain. She’s soaked, been stood up and that’s it, she’s had it forever with romance.

What neither of them know is that some magic might just be round the corner. Or is true love just another conjuring trick, a sleight of hand?

A new romantic comedy by Alistair Rutherford (BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio Scotland), touring bars, cafes and theatres in Scotland and England, February/March 2012.

Scottish Storytelling Centre, Edinburgh
10-11 February at 8pm (doors open at 7:30pm)

Eden Court Theatre, Inverness
14 February at 7:30pm

FTH, Falkirk
16 February at 2:30pm and 7:30pm

Byre Theatre, St Andrews
18 February at 8pm

Tron Theatre, Glasgow
22-25 February at 8:30pm

Regal Community Theatre, Bathgate
2 March at 8pm

Maltings Theatre, Berwick-upon-Tweed
4 March at 8pm

For more information visit www.peapodproductions.co.uk/passingthrough

Look forward to seeing you there!

I have recently finished a tour of “Gongo Visits Planet Earth” by Anita Gallo, with Engross Theatre. Engross creates work specifically for children with learning difficulties and we have been performing the play in special schools in Edinburgh.

I have been playing Ben, a ten year old boy who is visited by Gongo the Alien. As Gongo isn’t from Earth Ben has to show him how to behave with human beings (how to shake someone’s hand, how to tell if they are happy or sad, to not go into someone’s personal space, etc).

The kids loved the play and learnt a lot from it. We’ll be touring the next show (a play about bullying), “Be Nice” by Caroline Dunford, early 2012.

Engross Theatre are a fantastic company who produce great work. You can find out more about what they do at www.engrosstheatre.org.uk

The Garden *****
by Joyce McMillan (The Scotsman)
20 July 2011

We are sitting in a pretty courtyard just off the High Street; in front of us is some garden furniture – a small table, and four chairs. Across the table, a middle-aged couple called Anna and William snipe and nag at each other. Their only son, Alex has left home. His doting mother pines, and waits for a promised visit; his father resentfully dismisses him as a slob and a layabout.

Then at the height of the argument, a strange, pale-faced boy in a suit appears at the garden gate, saying that he once lived in the house, and a strange conversation follows, in which the boy, James, never answers a direct question, but slowly finds his way first into Anna’s heart, then into William’s.

This is the powerful opening sequence of Alistair Rutherford’s The Garden, a major success at the recent Leith Festival, and now heading off on tour in England. If the play has a problem, it lies in the lack of an ending that matches the rare dramatic force of the opening: it lacks a third act that would make more sense of James’s uncanny appearance, his ghost-like intuitions, the otherworldly quality of Philip Kingscott’s performance.

But in every other way this is a strong, compelling 55-minute family drama, beautifully performed by Kirsten Maguire as Anna, Adam Tomkins as William, and Martin Haddow and Philip Kingscott as the two boys. Its theme is the binding power of parental love and the way it can destroy marriages, and all but destroy the children at whom it is directed, if parents never learn to let go.

Yet in Kirsten Maguire’s pretty, haunted face, we can see the full measure of the sacrifice entailed in that commonplace piece of wisdom, and the temptation to cling to the child who never grows up, rather than to forge a new relationship with the one who does.

As well as touring with “The Garden” I will also be playing Dudley Perkins in a concert performance of “Mary of the High Seas” a musical based on the true story of 17th century pirate Mary Read.

Mary of the High Seas is a historical action-drama musical set in the turbulent world of the back streets of London, the battlefields of Flanders and the action and adventure of the high seas. The course of the story takes Mary from a selfish young tomboy with a huge chip on her shoulder, to gregarious young war hero, to a self-reliant pirate with the heart of a lion… in the body of a woman… disguised as a man.
The show is at The Church Hill Theatre in Morningside, Edinburgh on Saturday 23 July at 7pm and Sunday 24 July at 1pm. Admission £5.00

A significant portion of the show’s profits will go to The Edinburgh Young Parkinson’s Association.

You can reserve your ticket for the concert by emailing maryofthehighseas@hotmail.com
You can also find out more about the project at http://maryofthehighseas.weebly.com

Hope to see you there me hearties!

In June 2011, an entire day filled with five minute pieces of theatre will be broadcast online to the world. 24 hours will be filled with live performance, created by anyone for a worldwide audience of everyone.

People from all over the world have taken the challenge to help celebrate the National Theatre of Scotland’s first five dramatic years by writing, devising, directing, performing and producing hundreds of pieces of theatre, all five minutes long.

I will be performing “Burnt Saffron” a piece of new writing by Ellie Stewart, directed by Eleanor Morrison and also starring Laura Stephen (all of whom I’ve worked with before on “Guid Scratch”).

“Burnt Saffron” is being performed at Howden Park Centre, Livingston on Tuesday 21st June at about 6:30pm. The performance is free to attend.

You can also watch it live at www.fiveminutetheatre.com

One hot summer’s day a man walks, uninvited, down the path at the side of a house and into the large garden at the back. Alarmed at first by his presence, the owners slowly discover why he has come to their home.

“The Garden” is a tense new drama by Alistair Rutherford (BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio Scotland) about when family relationships break down. The play centres around two sons, James and Alex, and the effects of too much love.

This open-air production will be touring to gardens in Scotland and England this summer:

15-19 June at 7:30pm and 18-19 June at 3pm
The Secret Garden at South Leith Parish Church, Edinburgh (Leith Festival)
Tickets: Tel. 0131 5550501 or online at www.leithfestival.com

17 July at 3pm
Scottish Storytelling Centre, Edinburgh
Tickets: Tel. 0131 5569579 or buy online at www.scottishstorytellingcentre.co.uk

20-21 July at 3pm and 7pm
The Garden, Norman Avenue, Henley-on-Thames (Henley Fringe Festival)
Tickets: Tel. 01491 578631 or buy online at www.henleyfringe.org

6 August at 3pm
The Walled Garden at Howden Park Centre, Livingston
Tickets: Tel. 01506 777666 or buy online at www.howdenparkcentre.co.uk

9-13 August at 7pm
The Lodge Garden, North Berwick (Fringe by the Sea)
Tickets: Buy online at www.fringebythesea.co.uk

21 August at 7:30pm
Armadale Castle Gardens, Clan Donald Centre, Isle of Skye
Tickets: Tel. 01471 844774

For more information visit www.peapodproductions.co.uk

Hope you can make it to one of the performances!

Christmas saw the first production from my theatre company Peapod Productions. The show was a great success and gave me the chance to play three very diffrent characters. More info and reviews will be up on the website soon.

Earlier this year I competed in The Norman Beaton Fellowship for BBC Radio Drama. Although I didn’t win I did get through to the semi-finals in Birmingham and given that I was one of only two people that were chosen from Scotland I was very pleased with how far I got.

In March I directed a show and led a workshop for the Benvenuto Players, a youth theatre based near Milan in Italy. The kids enjoyed it so much that I have been asked to come back next year.

I have also been asked to join the board of Firefly Youth Theatre (formerly West Lothian Youth Theatre) and to create another “Guid Scratch” evening with Ellie Stewart after the success of last year’s event.

I’m also currently filming a short film for a young filmaker based in Edinburgh. I play the lead in the film. The piece is about a man trying to sleep, only to be woken by ghostly noises in his neighbour’s flat… The film will be shown at The Filmhouse cinema in Edinburgh in the summer and will be released on a compliation DVD later this year.

And finally I’m currently in the stages of organising the next Peapod production. The next play will be an open-air tour of “The Garden”, a tense play about families and the secrets we keep to protect them. The production will be touring to venues thoughout Britain this summer.

More details about all these events will be up on the website soon.

Don’t forget to check out the Peapod Productions page too!

The first one being a rehearsed reading of “Layman’s Terms” with Tightlaced Theatre.

Gemma Collins has become the first female police officer in the UK to qualify for super powers. As newly-named ‘Ace’, she must answer to her sponsor, a poker website who funded her new abilities.

Super powers with a difference in a darkly entertaining thriller.

The play is being performed at Arts Complex in Edinburgh on Wednesday 3rd November at 7pm. More information is available from Tightlaced Theatre’s website.

Then on Friday 12th November I will be producing, directing (and doing a little bit of performing) in “Guid Scratch“. An evening of new writing to raise funds for Firefly Youth Theatre. The event will take place at Howden Park Centre in Livingston on Friday 12th November at 7:30pm. Tickets and more information are available on the Firefly website.

Then on later on in November I will be reprising the role of Bobby Mackay in “An Island Between Heaven and Earth“. This performance will be on Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st November at 7pm at Govan Old Parish Church in Glasgow. Tickets and more information is available from Govan Old’s website.

And then in December I will be performing in “The Eight: Reindeer Monologues“. A Christmas show for adults by Jeff Goode. The show will take place from Thursday 16th til Sunday 19th December at the GRV in Edinburgh at 8pm. This will be the first production of my own company Peapod Productions. More details to follow soon…

Hope you can make it to one of the shows!

The market will take place in Cumnock on Saturday 2nd October. It promises to be weird and wonderful! Here’s a little video clip of what to expect:

 Hope to see you there to join in the madness!

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“Magpies” a modern family drama that focuses on Michelle and her dependence on and escape from drugs and abusive destructive relationships.
Presented as a rehearsed reading in the bar at Zoo Roxy during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

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The play will be performed at Zoo Roxy (venue 115 – also known as the Roxy Art House) in Edinburgh on Friday 27th August at 12:00pm. This event is free and non-ticketed.

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Hope to see you there!

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