Actor Alan Cumming to lead Pitlochry Festival Theatre

Alan Cumming has been announced as the new artistic director of Pitlochry Festival Theatre.

The actor, who grew up in Perthshire, will take up his post in January but will not programme any work until 2026.

He has described the appointment as a homecoming to a “hidden gem”.

The festival’s chairman said he was impressed by Cumming’s “passion, vision and commitment” to theatre and to the people of Scotland.

Alan Cumming, 59, who was born in Aberfeldy, trained at the then Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and made his stage debut as an actor 40 years ago.

He has since built up a large body of work across theatre, television and film, including the National Theatre of Scotland (NTS) productions of Bacchus and Macbeth.

He also co-created and co-wrote the BBC Scotland comedy series The High Life and appeared in the films Goldeneye, Eyes Wide Shut and X-Men 2.

In recent years he has returned to Scotland to appear on stage for the NTS, as well as presenting the US version of the hit TV reality show The Traitors.

The appointment comes after what Pitlochry Festival Theatre describes as “an intensive three-month recruitment and selection process”.

Cumming said: “For me, all roads lead to the theatre and all roads lead to Scotland. I am a theatre animal at heart and, like Robert Burns, my heart is in the Highlands.

“To become Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s artistic director is a homecoming I embrace with all my experience, all my passion and, yes, all my heart.”

He described the theatre as a “hidden gem” and praised its facilities and potential. He promised to invite the “world’s best theatre acts” to perform there.

“I want Pitlochry Festival Theatre to be a home for everyone and to remain at the heart of the community,” he said.

“And, to quote Burns again, ‘I will dare to be honest and fear no labour’. Above all, I cannot wait to share Pitlochry with the world, and the world with Pitlochry.”

Pitlochry Festival Theatre opened in 1951 and is Scotland’s largest building-based producing theatre.

It operates across the year and each summer offers six plays in daily repertory, enabling visitors to see six plays in six nights. The theatre draws more than 100,000 visitors annually.

Actors who have appeared there include Iain Cuthbertson, Mollie Sugden and Joss Ackland.

The theatre’s chairman, Crawford Gillies, said he was “delighted” to welcome the actor.

“Throughout the selection process, I was deeply impressed by his passion, vision and commitment to theatre and to the people of Scotland.

“His vast experience and strong leadership skills give me great confidence that, alongside [executive director] Kris Bryce, he will take the theatre to new heights, building on our legacy and continuing to grow our reputation locally and internationally.

“With Alan’s appointment, we continue to look forward to the brightest of futures.”

Mr Gillies paid tribute to departing artistic director Elizabeth Newman, who he said had been instrumental in getting the theatre to where it is today.

Ms Newman said she could not think of a better person to take over the job.

“Alan is an exceptional artist and an inspiring leader who will catapult the theatre into new and exciting dialogues with artists and audiences here and around the world,” she said.

“I can’t wait to return to the theatre in the future, as a member of the audience this time, to experience the impact of Alan’s artistic direction and the work of the world-class artists he will bring to Pitlochry.”

Alan Cumming is no stranger to Scotland’s tight-knit theatre community.

He may be more familiar to a wider audience through shows like The Traitors (for which he last week won an Emmy) or films like Goldeneye.

But for the past two decades he has been centre-stage in some of the biggest theatrical events in Scotland.

Two NTS performances in particular stand out.

The scene stealing moment when he descended on wires from high in the theatre rafters in The Bacchae in 2007.

And his solo Macbeth, which he performed at Tramway in Glasgow before transferring to the Lincoln Centre in New York.

So although he’s lived in New York for the past 20 years, winning acclaim and his first Emmy for Cabaret on Broadway, he has always kept close ties to Scottish theatre.

Even so, today’s announcement still comes as a surprise and we won’t know how he sees the role until he takes up his post in January.

He may perhaps take his cue from the director of the Edinburgh International Festival, Nicola Benedetti, who’s having to balance her own career as a violinist with the wider good of the festival she now leads.

Like Benedetti, Cumming has real star power. He can bring profile to a theatre which is often overlooked, in a part of Scotland which is sometimes forgotten.

And he can make the kinds of introductions which – in his own words – would “share Pitlochry with the world and the world with Pitlochry.”

His passion for theatre is unquestionable but his task in this job will be to champion other people’s work as well as his own.

It will be interesting to hear his plans when he takes up the job in a few months.