Role up for five-minute theatre: Ambitious summer programme revealed by NTS

ONE of the most ambitious projects in Scottish theatre will be played out on the longest day of the year.

Plays just five minutes long are to be staged at farmyards, forests, pubs, bedrooms, treehouses, trains, rooftops and art galleries, as part of an ambitious project by the National Theatre of Scotland.

Organised to mark its fifth birthday, some 235 plays will be performed live or broadcast online for 24 hours from 5pm on 21 June.

Entries opened in February for the project, with one of the main criteria being that a play had to be staged before a live audience.

Plays will include an expectant mother delivering a monologue to her unborn child, a comedian performing a show about depression from a park bench, an imaginary conversation between a paper boy and a cow in a field, and a couple arguing on a busy commuter train.

A hotel in Glasgow will stand in for Prince William's wedding night venue for one play, while the city's waterfront will see the audience follow two elderly women on mobility scooters as they perform.

Five different shows will be staged at a school in East Lothian, while pupils at a school in Ayrshire will perform a piece about the couple evicted from their home to make way for Glasgow's Commonwealth Games.

Other shows include a worker performing in an office, workers in a public library arguing about the purpose of literature, while Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh will host a performance inspired by Victorian ghost stories.

Although the vast majority of the shows will be performed in Scotland, the NTS has selected 13 entries to be staged elsewhere in the UK, and a further 20 elsewhere in the world, including Paraguay, Milan, New York, Brussels and Shanghai.

Marianne Maxwell, audience development manager at NTS, said: "The response to Five Minute Theatre from all over the world has been fantastic. The creativity of each submission promises live and virtual audiences 24 hours of short, original, funny and brilliant entertainment on 21 June."

Sharron Devine, who is 32 weeks pregnant, will perform her show, Hello You, in the bedroom of her flat in Edinburgh.

She said: "Hello You … is a small, insightful slice of theatre all about the little life growing inside me - my hopes, my fears and my anticipations about my baby and what it means to me to finally becoming a mother."

Colin Hough, whose play The Garibaldi Paradox will be performed on the Clydeside promenade, said: "The audience will walk alongside the characters."

The full schedule will be announced on 20 May.

The play's the thing … in the pub, in the park or down on the farm

1. Ayr

THE MARKET INN: Five different shows will be staged in the pub, including a classical Greek drama retold in the style of a daytime chat show

2. Midlothian

A FARM: Performance poet Michael Pedersen's piece will be based on an imaginary conversation between a cow and a passing paper boy

3. Stirling

THE MERCAT CROSS: Jim Roche will perform a piece entitled The Hanging of Archbishop Hamilton on the exact spot where the cleric was executed in 1571

4. Dundee

A PARK BENCH: Stand-up comedian David Innes will perform a monologue on depression

5. Edinburgh

ARTHUR'S SEAT: John Thoumire will revive old Victorian ghost stories from the city atop the famous beauty spot

6. Paisley

TRAMPOLINE: As their childen are bouncing up and down, the two young mothers in Sandra Webster's play offer a glimpse into the ups and downs of bringing up autistic youngsters