The Royal Lyceum Theatre have a cunning plan with ‘SOUND STAGE’
On her journey towards being Educated, Rita solves the bane of all stage productions faced with Peer Gynt, ‘Do it on the radio!’ she tells Frank. (Not a lot of people know that!). With theatre-lovers going Lockdown gaga The Royal Lyceum, Pitlochry Festival Theatre in collaboration with Naked Productions (stop tittering at the back there!) have announced new immersive audio digital theatre from late March.
Sound Stage will premier eight new plays written by, amongst others, Mark Ravenhill, Roy Williams, Timberlake Wertenbaker, and John Byrne. Mr ‘Tutti Frutti’ Byrne will be showing off his first new play since Nova Scotia at the Traverse Theatre in 2008.
Pam Ferris 
Jackson Laing 
Toby Jones 
Joseph Milson 
Kirsty Stuart 
Mark Ravenhill with his mother 
Mark Ravenhill with his cine camera in 1971 
Oliver Huband
So, what is this Sound Stage all about? Cue our friends at the Lyceum: “Sound Stage is an exciting new audio-digital venture giving audiences a unique and engrossing online theatre experience of new plays from the best in British theatre which in the future we, alongside Pitlochry Festival Theatre, hope to produce on stage.”
The opening season will also feature new plays by Roy Williams (Death of England and Sing Yer Heart Out For The Lads, National Theatre), John Byrne (The Slab Boys, Traverse Theatre and Tutti Frutti, BBC Scotland); Timberlake Wertenbaker (Our Country’s Good, National Theatre and Broadway); Lynda Radley (The Interference, Edinburgh Fringe) Jaimini Jethwa (The Last Queen of Scotland, Dundee Rep ); Frances Poet (Ghost Light, National Theatre of Scotland) and Gary McNair (Locker Room Talk, Traverse).
Playwright Mark Ravenhill who has penned Angela, available from 26 to 28 March, said: “With the death of my mum in 2019, I was drawn for the first time to write an autobiographical play. I was particularly interested to explore the way culture high and low had impacted on Mum’s life and our lives as a family. The play is constructed around a series of encounters with children’s literature, classical ballet, amateur theatre and popular song – encounters that shaped my mum’s sense of self and her relationship with me. Both my parents are from working class backgrounds which gives a specific turn to their relationship to culture and to me. As I thought about a form that could move swiftly in time and location and between inner thought and outer action, I realised that this was best written as a radio play. I feel it’s the most ‘radio’ of the radio plays that I’ve written…”
Sound Stage will operate an online booking system for all productions. Just like booking a ticket for the theatre, audiences will be able to book ahead for a performance and time of their choice. There is a dedicated sign up form to advise when tickets will go on sale together with all the latest news about the productions direct to your Lockdown laptop.
Tickets for Angela, along with the remaining seven Sound Stage productions,go on sale on Sunday 14 February, and can be purchased through The Lyceum and Pitlochry Festival Theatre websites priced from £10 per play across the season. Details here
What’s on when:
Fri 26 – Sun 28 March
Angela
by Mark Ravenhill
Fri 30 April – Sun 2 May
Tennis Elbow
by John Byrne
Fri 28 – Sun 30 May
Hindu Times
by Jaimini Jethwa
Fri 25 – Sun 27 June
The Mother Load
by Lynda Radley
Fri 23 – Sun 25 July
Black Diamonds and the Blue Brazil
by Gary McNair
Fri 27 – Sun 29 Aug
Sophia
by Frances Poet
Fri 24 – Sun 26 Sept
Premiere TBA
by Roy Williams
Fri 29 – Sun 31 Oct
Premiere TBA
by Timberlake Wertenbaker
https://lyceum.org.uk/sound-stage
