Scandinavian horror film features as a drama in NTS new season

THE award-winning director of National Theatre of Scotland hits Black Watch, The Bacchae and Macbeth is to mastermind a major new stage adaptation of a cult Swedish horror film, which will be the centrepiece of a new programme of plays unveiled yesterday.

John Tiffany, who also scooped a Tony award on Broadway earlier this year, will lead the team behind the flagship production of Let the Right One In next year.

Bafta-winning writer Jack Thorne, best-known for his work on Skins and This is England ’88, is behind the script for the show, which is expected to be a much darker production than NTS’s recent adaptation of The Wicker Man, the celebrated Scottish horror movie.

Let The Right One In, to be staged initially at Dundee Rep in June, is expected to be a major highlight in the last NTS season to be overseen by artistic director Vicky Featherstone, who is leaving her post at the end of this year. Although the recruitment process to find her replacement is well under way, it is thought it will be several weeks before the new figurehead is unveiled.

Relocated to Scotland, Let The Right One In tells of the horrors that unfold when a 12-year-old boy befriends a mysterious young girl who shows up in his town – and turns out to be a vampire.

The National Theatre of Scotland promises the show – on which award-winning international producers Marla Rubin and Claudio Carrera are also working – will feature both “spectacular stage design and gymnastic choreography”.

Other large-scale productions unveiled yesterday include a revival of the classic play In Time O’ Strife written by Fife miner Joe Corrie at the height of the 1926-strike, which will be revived in the area again next September when it tours village halls and former mining communities.

Ignition, a site-specific production in Shetland, will explore the “bitter-sweet” relationships its islands have with the car in a show partly inspired by the tragic death of 18-year-old Stuart Henderson, who died in a head-on crash.

A collaboration with China will see a whole series of new work from the Far East staged at Oran Mor in Glasgow in the spring, while the Beijing Children’s Art Theatre company will join forces with NTS and Glasgow’s Vox Motus theatre company to create Dragon, a new Glasgow-set family show about a 12-year-old boy whose mother has just died and whose sister is training to swim in the Commonwealth Games.

Neil Gaiman and Dave 
McKean’s children’s book, The Day I Swapped My Dad For Two Goldfish, will be turned into a touring “promenade” production, while the Tramway in Glasgow will host a brand new adaption of James Hogg’s classic 19th-
century book, Confessions of a Justified Sinner.

Meanwhile, award-winning playwright Zinnie Harris’s version of A Doll’s House, a huge hit in London three years ago, will be at the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh next year.

The new line-up has been announced on the back of a string of high-profile hits for NTS this year, including Alan Cumming’s one-man performance of Macbeth and Enquirer, the hard-hitting exploration of issues affecting Britain’s newspaper industry.

Ms Featherstone said of her final programme: “At a time when the arts are facing some of their greatest challenges for a while, it is wonderful to know that our theatre-makers continue to pursue thrilling ways to tell stories.”

TEN NEW PROJECTS FROM MARCH TO NOVEMBER 2013

March 2013

Wils Wilson leads a creative team to inspire the whole of Shetland to take part in creating an ambitious site-specific production about fuel and cars and their impact on island life. Ignition is presented by the National Theatre of Scotland in association with Shetland Arts. Supported by Creative Scotland’s First in a Lifetime Fund.

March/April 2013

The National Theatre of Scotland in partnership with Òran Mór presents a season of new work from China, curated by Davey Anderson. This is the National Theatre of Scotland and Òran Mór’s third international A Play, A Pie and A Pint collaboration. Four to six new plays from China will form part of Òran Mór’s Spring season. World premieres.

April 2013

Graham McLaren directs A Doll’s House, in a version by Zinnie Harris at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh from 13 April to 4 May 2012. A National Theatre of Scotland production. Scottish Premiere.

May 2013

The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean is adapted for the first time for stage by Abigail Docherty and directed by Lu Kemp. An interactive promenade adventure for everyone over six and their family. Touring Scotland. World Premiere.

June 2013

A new radical performance project from the pioneering Untitled Projects. Paul Bright’s Confessions of a Justified Sinner reconstructed by Untitled Projects, in a co-production with the National Theatre of Scotland and Tramway. At Tramway, Glasgow from 13 to 22 June 2013. Directed by Stewart Laing. World Premiere.

June 2013

A major new production about young love and horror in a Scottish town. The National Theatre of Scotland and Marla Rubin Productions Ltd in association with Dundee Rep Theatre present Let the Right One In, a stage adaptation by Jack Thorne based on the Swedish novel and screenplay of the cult Swedish romantic horror film by John Ajvide Lindquist, directed by John Tiffany and with associate direction by Steven Hoggett. At Dundee Rep Theatre from 6 to 29 June. World Premiere.

September 2013

Graham McLaren invigorates Joe Corrie’s impassioned tale of striking miners, In Time O’Strife in a radical new production. Touring village halls in Fife.

October 2013

Vox Motus, the National Theatre of Scotland and Beijing Children’s Art Theatre present Dragon. A magical production for families in an innovative international/Scottish partnership. Dates to be announced shortly. World Premiere.

In addition:

A new project, written and directed by Anthony Neilson. Full details to be announced.

Five new pieces of work, the culmination of their individual research programmes, from the artists on the National Theatre of Scotland and The Arches’ Auteurs Creative Development Programme: Rob Drummond, Kieran Hurley, Gary McNair, Nic Green and Claire Cunningham. Supported by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.

Productions touring as part of the National Theatre of Scotland’s repertoire:

David Greig’s majestic sequel to Macbeth is back. The National Theatre of Scotland and the Royal Shakespeare Company present Dunsinane at Eden Court, Inverness, 24 to 31 August, His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen, 3 to 7 September, Theatre Royal Glasgow, 10 to 14 September, Kings Theatre, Edinburgh 1 to 5 October and further UK dates to be announced.

The National Theatre of Scotland presents Black Watch in Seattle 25 April to 5 May 2013 and San Francisco, 9 May to 16 June 2013.

David Harrower’s elegiac adaptation of Roger Hutchinson’s book, a massive hit with audiences in 2011, is back on the road. Communicado Theatre and the National Theatre of Scotland present Calum’s Road, touring throughout Scotland from May to July 2013. Supported by Creative Scotland.