Alan Cumming in Dundee for tartan talk: Here's when the Scottish X Men and Good Wife star will appear at the V&A Museum - and how to get presale tickets

The multi-talented television and movie star will be in town as part of the museum’s latest show.

Alan Cumming is never short of a tartan suit.

The V&A’s Tartan exhibition opened at the start of April, taking a “radical new look at one of the world’s best-known textiles”.

Now Tony and Olivier Award winning actor Alan Cumming has announced he’ll be visiting for a talk about all things tartan

He will be in conversation with Simon Sladen, Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Theatre and Performance at V&A South Kensington, to delve into tartan on screen, in performance, as costume and more.

Here’s what you need to know – and how to get your hands on one of the strictly limited tickets.

When will Alan Cumming be appearing at Dundee’s V&A Museum?

The actor will be at the museum for the Talking Tartan event from 6.45-8pm on Thursday, May 11.

Can I buy presale tickets for the event?

Tickets are now available for V&A Members. You can become a member here from £25 a year.

Members also get access to special events, unlimited exhibition visits, 10 per cent off the museum shop and 10 per cent off food and drink at the Tatha Bar & Kitchen.

When are tickets on sale to the general public?

If you are not a V&A member you will be able to get tickets from 10am on Wednesday, April 19, here.

How much are the tickets?

The tickets to the event are just £12/£6 concession.

Who is Alan Cumming?

From film to theatre, Alan Cumming’s work ranges from art house to blockbusters. You’ve seen him as Mr Floop in Spy Kids, Eli in The Good Wife, Nightcrawler in X2: X Men United, Sandy Frink in Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion (a positively iconic performance if you ask us), ‘O’ in Sex and the City, Boris in Goldeneye, King James in Doctor Who, the list goes on. Author of six books including a New York Times number one bestselling memoir, Alan also co-owns his eponymous New York cabaret bar Club Cumming, a home for ‘all ages, all genders, all colours, all sexualities, where kindness is all, and anything could happen’. Growing up in Scotland, Alan studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow (now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland).

Who is Simon Sladen?

Simon Sladen is Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Theatre and Performance at V&A South Kensington and is also Senior Tutor (Performance) on the V&A and Royal College of Art’s History of Design Master’s programme. Recent exhibitions and displays for V&A South Kensington include Re:Imagining Musicals, Laughing Matters: The State of a Nation, Censored! Stage, Screen, Society and Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser. Simon's research often explores the relationship between nation and identity in popular performance forms, with his entry on Scottish pantomime design featuring in V&A publication The Story of Scottish Design and his work on Scottish pantomime Dames ‘In a Queer Tradition’ featuring in Somewhere for Us’s 2021 festive issue. Simon is Chair of the UK Pantomime Association, on the editorial board of the British Theatre Guide and chairs the Academic Advisory Board of Blackpool’s new museum Showtown. Simon is part of the curatorial team behind The David Bowie Centre for the Study of Performing Arts, set to open at V&A East in 2025.

How long is the Tartan exhibition on for?

Even if you don’t make it to Alan Cumming’s talk you have plenty of time to see the exhibition – it will be on until Sunday, January 14, 2024 and is open from 10am-5pm every day.

Experience dazzling objects from around the world from the high fashion of Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen to Jackie Stewart's racing helmet, from the portrait of rugby legend Doddie Weir to the MacBean tartan which rocketed to the moon. See tartan worn by Bonnie Prince Charlie and Bay City Rollers trousers handmade by a lifelong fan, together with the indigenous textiles of Indian Madras and the humble Scottish shortbread tin.