Copyright scotsman
Acting legend Sir Ian McKellen, Graham Norton and Evelyn Glennie are among the stars set to appear at a new arts festival brought to Scotland by Alan Cumming to celebrate queer culture. Cumming said the festival, at Pitlochry Festival Theatre, was a celebration of LGBTQIA+ culture at a time in society that he described as a “more repressive era for queer people”. The Out In The Hills festival, set to take place in January, will involve Sir Ian starring in Equinox, a brand new one man play by Laurie Slade. Cumming will also perform in a staged reading of an adaptation of a short story by Noel Coward. Norton will be in conversation with Cumming, one of a number of interview events that also feature former Scottish Makar Jackie Kay and writer Armistead Maupin. Subscribe today to the Scotsman’s Arts newsletter Meanwhile, Scotland’s first openly gay footballer Zander Murray will speak to charity LEAP Sports, which promotes inclusion and participation for LGBTQIA+ people in sport. Other events will be on topics ranging from crime writing to yoga and baking. A new monologue adapted from the acclaimed novel Slumboy by Glasgow writer Juano Diaz will feature music performed by international percussionist Glennie. Cumming, who became artistic director of Pitlochry Festival Theatre in January, said he wanted the festival to be an “explosion of people coming in from across the world”. He said: “I thought an LGBTQ festival would be great, but also we’re at a time in our history when we're getting back to a more repressive era for queer people, especially trans people. I want to let everybody have a chance to celebrate and to be reminded of what great contributions LGBTQ people have made to culture and our lives in general.” The actor said the queer community is being “unfairly targeted and erroneously litigated against”, pointing to a deteriorating situation in the US. “Everyone turns on the queer community and my reaction to that is, I say, ‘look how amazing the queer community is and has been, and in how much of our culture and our lives we really punch way above our weight in terms of the contribution we make to society’. So let's celebrate that.” Cumming said the performer list had snowballed as he had started to tell people about his plans for the event. “I intend this to be a yearly thing,” he said. “What's so exciting about it is that when we put the word out, so many people were like ‘that's a great idea. I want to come’. So we've got a pretty heavy-hitting schedule for a first time festival.” Cumming said he had wanted to introduce events at a time of year when the theatre schedule was quieter. His Winter Words festival, which involved authors and poets, ran for the first time earlier this year and is due to return in February. Cumming had also hoped to run a folk festival in March, which will not take place this year but could be a future fixture on the calendar. “Those are the months, perhaps, that people in the area could do with a bit of a pep more than ever,” he said. Cumming, who is curating the festival with the help of Glasgow-based playwright Lewis Hetherington, said ticket sales at the theatre had risen significantly since he started his new role, but would not give specific details. He said: “Part of my whole ethos of doing this job is realising the potential that Pitlochry Festival Theatre has. The amount of worldwide press means millions and millions of people have now heard of Pitlochry who had never heard of it before. That has definitely had an effect on sales.” Cumming said he wanted to “make this to be as huge and as great for Pitlochry and for Scotland as it possibly can be”. He said: “What I very much see as my job is to try to continue the perception of Pitlochry as this international theatre destination where people come from across the world, both to come and make work there, which we then take out to the rest of the world, but also as somewhere where they see there are always exciting things going on.” He added: “Things are tough, financially, so I want to do anything that I can do to help regenerate interest and income for not just for Pitlochry, but the whole of Scotland and the Scottish art scene.” Hetherington’s film Who Will Be Remembered Here, co-created with CJ Mahony and displayed at this year’s Edinburgh Art Festival, invites four queer writers to reimagine historic sites in their own language. The writer’s exhibition Portraits of an LGBTQI+ generation, which celebrates the lives and stories of queer elders across Scotland, by pairing photographic portraits taken by Tiu Makkonnen with short films, will also be on show. Cumming hopes the “big names and big titles” will draw people in, but that audiences will also see performances from other Scottish artists. He said: “It's a very much about asking the audience to take part in in in supporting new talent, as well as coming to see the talent that you love.” Drop-in workshops for young people will be held across the weekend, as well as stand-up comedy, a ceilidh and a DJ set from Junglehussi. The Out In The Hills Festival will take place from January 16 to 18 at Pitlochry Festival Theatre.
