Sweet escape

Summer is generally a quite time for theatre-going, with most venues going ‘dark’ as the weather brightens.

Not so at Pitlochry Festival Theatre, which every year provides a varied repertory season that attracts day-trippers and holiday makers as well as loyal locals.

This year’s promises to be high on laughs, with four comedies and two dramas making up the programme.

First up is Wild Honey, an adaptation of Chekhov’s first play by English writer Michael Frayn, whose credits include the classic farce Noises Off. Frayn’s abridged version of the sprawling five-hour drama maximises the comic potential of the tale of romantic entanglements set on a Russian country estate.

Keeping the laughs coming will be Oliver Goldsmith’s classic Georgian comedy She Stoops To Conquer, opening on May 22, and Habeas Corpus, Allan Bennett’s medical farce, from May 29.

June sees the Scottish premiere of Arcadia, which combines detective story and historical romance and won the Olivier Award from Best New Play when it opened in 1994. George Bernard Shaw’s comedy or ideas Heartbreak Housefollows in July, and August sees a revival of David Greig’s acclaimed adult drama Outlying Islands.

The season at Pitlochry Festival Theatre begins on May 16 with the first night of Wild Honey, and runs until October.