BBC Scotland poet in residence and leading playwright team up for a dramatic Christmas-themed premiere at the Theatre Royal in Dumfries.
Acclaimed playwright Simon Farquhar and BBC Scotland’s Poet in Residence Stuart Paterson from Dumfries and Galloway are joining forces on a project bringing world premiere drama to Scotland’s oldest working theatre.
The pair are teaming up for A Play, A Poet & A Pastry – an initiative by Bunbury Banter Theatre Company in partnership with the Theatre Royal, Dumfries, which takes place on Friday, 24 November.
It will see the first ever staging of a work called Wassail Play which is currently being completed by Farquhar. Casting is underway for the women who will take both roles in the Christmas-themed two-hander.
What makes A Play, A Poet & A Pastry so exciting is that it is designed to encourage spontaneity and freshness. There are just two rehearsals and a single performance – with Paterson, who lives in Dumfries and Galloway, then presenting the audience with his own poetic response to the work.
This is all followed by a discussion in the theatre’s studio over pastries.
Farquhar, whose career began in Aberdeen and now lives in London, praised the initiative, saying: “How refreshing it is that a theatre in Dumfries is hosting such an original and exciting idea, stealing a march on the big cities.
“Regional theatre has been undervalued for so long, but an idea like this brings it back to its roots, rather like the magnificent work the 7:84 theatre company did so brilliantly in the 70s, blending plays, music and dance in village halls and regional theatres all over Scotland. I’m very proud to have been asked to be involved.”
Explaining how he is approaching the project Farquhar added: “Writing a short play which you then get different reactions to is fascinating. There’s a lovely immediacy about the idea. Usually with a play, it’s there on the stage and then everyone quietly files out and goes their separate ways.
“In the theatre, the audience is the last member of the cast, so the idea of holding a discussion with them is a very warm and enriching idea, very civilised, and feels very natural. And to hear a new poem that has been created in response to it will be fascinating. How many writers get that privilege?”
His play Rainbow Kiss was staged at the Royal Court and Dream Me a Winter was at the Old Vic. Farquhar is also an author and a journalist, regularly writing for The Times and The Guardian.
The new work will address some themes of loss and longing that are well suited to the season and the turning of the year.
Stuart Paterson from Dumfries and Galloway, who is BBC Scotland’s 2017-18 Poet in Residence, said: “I’m delighted to be involved in such an honest and emotional play by Simon Farquhar. It really does, as a poet, ask me questions around so many issues such as belonging, acceptance and resistance.
“Answering these questions is a challenge, creatively and personally. I look forward to an evening where drama meets poetry and audience, and engages us all in a discussion which, I hope, helps us get to the very heart of word, character and self.”
His Indigo Dreams pamphlet Border Lines won the 2016 Saboteur Awards Best Pamphlet category. His latest collection, Looking South, was published by Indigo Dreams in 2017.
Wassail Party is part of the second of four bi-monthly events which kicked off in September when Andrew Byatt and Gavin Jon Wright performed The Square Mile/Y Filltir Sgwar by award-winning Glasgow-based playwright Andrew Edwards.
Ali Anderson-Dyer, Director and co-founder of the event’s producers Bunbury Banter, said: “We are presenting playwrights, poets and actors with a huge challenge – to stage a brand new piece of theatre with just two rehearsals while the poet works in parallel, coming up with their own response.
“It has a potent mix of freshness and spontaneity and which everyone really enjoys.
“What’s particularly rewarding is that we are getting so much interest from such a talented range of playwrights, poets and actors. To be working with people of the calibre of Simon and Stuart is a great pleasure and we are sure the end result is going to be superb.”
A Play, A Poet & A Pastry is a collaboration between Dumfries and Galloway’s Bunbury Banter Theatre Company and the Theatre Royal, with four bi-monthly events planned between September and the end of March.
Bunbury Banter, based in Thornhill, are specialists in new and experimental theatre. They have recently produced Blackout to much acclaim, worked with the National Theatre of Scotland on the Five-Minute Festival, and a web-based audio production called Mortar which starred Timothy West, Prunella Scales and Nichola McAuliffe.
Lyndsay Walker, Marketing and Communications Officer for the Theatre Royal, said: “We are delighted to be, once again, the host for A Play, A Poet & A Pastry.
“The first event in September was well attended, with the audience providing excellent feedback. The format that Bunbury Banter have chosen works really well in our studio theatre and ensures that the audience is engaging with both the actors, the play and the subsequent poem. We are looking forward to the next event.”
A Play, A Poet & A Pastry involves the semi-staging of the plays. It is being supported by the Holywood Trust, DGU’s Regional Arts Fund and Dumfries and Galloway Arts Live. The pastries are provided by the Marchbank Bakery.
