Our Love Letter To Scotland
Shades of Tay is an ambitious Artistic Project by Pitlochry Festival Theatre to create, grow and nurture over 50 pieces of new art by artists and communities. We will produce this artistic voyage from 2020 to 2022 – an exciting and glorious response to the people, the places and the heritage of this rich landscape. We will also celebrate the Year of Scotland’s Coasts and Waters in 2020. Shades of Tay is a great way for PFT to start conversations about the stories we need to be telling for the next seventy years, as we approach our birthday. We want to tell stories about Scotland – with and for the people of this country and the world. We want this Artistic Project to provoke debate and inspire response that stimulates the next generation of artists
The Shades of Tay artistic responses will be made by professional and non-professional artists. Irrespective of experience, what sits at the heart of the Project is authentic expression, a celebration of history and exploration of nature. Shades of Tay will be the celebration of how art is wholly and truly inspired by nature.
Why the Tay?
The River Tay is nearly 120 miles long. It possesses mystical might and holds exciting and inspiring stories in its waters. At PFT – we are powered by the Tay as we sit on the riverbank of the Tummel, a tributary of this great river.
Why now?
The Tay is the River Highway that everyone crosses at some point in Scotland; it has many bridges. At PFT we would like to build some metaphorical bridges between us and our Scottish communities, the people we know and the ones we have yet to meet. We want to bring people together and connect communities.
SHADES OF TAY premières – further dates to be announced
DATE | TITLE | WRITER | STORY | PERFORMED by | |||
August | |||||||
Friday 7 | Beautiful Boy | Douglas Maxwell |
Returning to his family home, an artist comes to clear his mother’s house ready for sale. He revisits his childhood and his first love and the life he left behind in London. And his mother’s pet cockatoo, Chandler. He heads out on the hill to draw – and the forest moves as he draws it.
|
Richard Standing | |||
Sat 8 | After Miss Georgina Ballantine | Linda McLean |
Miss Georgina Ballentine is famous for catching the largest ever Salmon (64lbs) on the River Tay at Dunkeld. This piece imagines her challenge and her acceptance by the nature surrounding the river.
|
Rachel McAllister | |||
Sat 15 | This is Not Schiehallion | Ellie Stewart |
Laura and James are doing a virtual sponsored walk up Scheihallion in memory of their mum, who loved the landscape surrounding the River Tay.
|
Blythe Jandoo and Richard Colvin | |||
Sat 22 | We All Need Company Sometimes | Chinonyerem Odimba |
A woman returns home and visits her first love: the River Tay.
|
Dominique Jackson, Kirsty Stuart, Rachael McAllister and Dan Willis | |||
Sat 29 | The Fish Woman | Frances Poet |
Georgina Ballentine, the woman who caught the biggest fish on the Ricer Tay, never married. In this piece, she finds out about the death of the man she fell in love with when another declares his love.
|
Kirsty Stuart | |||
September | |||||||
Sat 5 | A Man Stands In A Forest By A River | Peter Arnott |
An ex-soldier seeks peace and solace on the River Tay. The history of the place and the nature surrounding help him move on.
|
Richard Colvin | |||
Sat 12 | The Birch Tree Speaks | Timberlake Wertenbaker |
The Lady of the Woods, the birch tree, speaks to someone seeking understanding by looking at her. More than myth, she is science and encourages the enchanted onlooker to be more like her.
|
Jesse Fox | |||
Sat 19 | Shadows of Tay | Jo Clifford |
Learning about the power and danger of water from her Grandmother growing up, a woman drives her dream of becoming an engineer.
|
Blythe Jandoo | |||
Sat 26 | Tatha Wakes Up From A Very Long Sleep | Abi Zakarian |
The River Goddess Tatha is placed next to a teenaged girl in a piece about happiness, nature, youth and forces of nature.
|
Barbara Hockaday | |||
October | |||||||
Sat 3 | 22 Mays | Martin McCormick |
After 22 Mays apart, the magic of the forest brings two people back together.
|
TBC | |||
Sat 10 | A Passing Dance | Morna Young |
Focusing on trees at the start of Autumn, A Passing Dance imagines the preparation for and spectacle of a leaf’s descent from a tree.
|
Rachel McAllister | |||
Sat 17 | Part of the World | Michael O’Neill | Richard Standing | ||||
Sun 18 | This Is the Scene | Jenny Lindsay | Jenny Lindsay | ||||
Sat 24 | Cold Water | Oliver Emanuel |
A woman takes herself off from her life to find something new. By swimming in the cold water river, leaving her world and entering another, she re-finds her past, a woman who inspired her and freedom.
|
Kirsty Stuart | |||
Sat 31 | Meeting Tatha | Hannah Lavery |
A woman who has lost control of her body imagines her wildness and freedom through the image of the River Tay.
|
Dominique Jackson | |||
November | |||||||
Sat 7 | The Message | Hannah Khalil |
A message in a bottle is found, uncorked and messages of love are passed on to the people who are missed and need to hear them.
|
Rachel McAllister | |||
Sat 14 | Here We Are Again | Dan Rebellato |
Another visit to the wood to talk to the trees and a man justifies his love for his friends, the trees and the magic he finds in the forest.
|
Jesse Fox | |||
Sat 21 | Recovery | Daniel Bye |
On an answer machine, we hear a message left for a loved one. A woman has walked with Spring from London to Aberfeldy on a determined road to recovery.
|
Kirsty Stuart | |||
TBC | Fireflies | Stephen Greenhorn | TBC |