Cinema screenings to be staged by National Theatre of Scotland

The National Theatre of Scotland is to stage cinema screenings of its work for the first time as part a drive to cater for audiences in some of the remote parts of the country.

The National Theatre of Scotland is joining forces with the Screen Machine to take its shows into remote corners of the country.

The company is to head out on tour with Scotland’s mobile cinema rather than actors to let audiences see one of its new shows, about a German scientist’s ill-fated attempt to set up a rocket-based postal service in the Western Isles in 1934.

NTS is to film a special performance of The Rocket Post - which has just begun a tour of the stage play -next month on the Isle of Harris, where the real-life story of Gerhard Zucker unfolded.

NTS will be joining forces with Regional Screen Scotland, which operates the Screen Machine, an 80-seater HGV which has toured the country for the last 12 years, to visit at least 10 locations for screenings of The Rocket Post.

It will visit the Orkney islands of Westray and Rousay for special previews of the film version of The Rocket Post in November, before the Screen Machine tour gets officially underway on Millport in December. A full schedule of tour dates will be annnounced later this year.

NTS artistic director Jackie Wylie said: “To be partnering with Regional Screen Scotland marks an exciting new chapter in the National Theatre of Scotland’s digital and broadcast journey.

"Ensuring we reach audiences across the whole of Scotland is of vital importance to the company and the screen version of Rocket Post will allow us to do this, in style, on board the fabulous Screen Machine.”