“Perthshire has an extensive and really exciting history of ghost stories, passed down through folklore tradition and on through the generations,” explains director Amy Liptrott.
She’s talking specifically about a trio of outdoor ghost stories, currently ongoing at Pitlochry Festival Theatre.
“The idea of the supernatural is fascinating, especially at this time of year when autumn is in full flow and nights start getting darker.
“There’s a real pull towards letting our imaginations lean towards telling stories. Our Ghost Stories are taking place outside in our garden and the performances are brilliantly atmospheric.”
Edinburgh-based writer Jen McGregor first made contact with Pitlochry Festival Theatre through her work as a director.
She says, “I assume my relentless interest in ghosts, about which I seldom shut up on my socials, was the reason I sprang to mind when they were commissioning for Ghost Stories.”
Her story ‘When Soft Voices Die’ is about “fear, bravery and how it feels to be alone in the dark.
Ghost stories from childhood
“Inspired by a story I remember from childhood about late 19th/early 20th Century Alyth enduring a spate of hauntings by naked ghosts,
“I imagined the type of character who might venture into the darkness to do something about it – Felicity Creech, a formidable piano teacher who looks like she’d have no truck with the supernatural.
“Glenna Morrison gives a beautiful performance as Felicity, she really captures the combination of indignance, strength and growing terror I wanted the character to have.
“I knew PFT was keen for Ghost Stories to connect to local stories and mythology, which led me to suggest the story of Alyth’s scandalous haunting as a starting point.
“I love responding to location, so knowing the show would be outdoors, I wanted to take advantage of how that would make the audience feel.
“When it’s chilly and dark and you’re surrounded by trees, even in the safety of a theatre environment, there’s a temptation for the imagination to run wild and start asking what would happen if all the lights went out?
“What was that sound in the bushes behind you?
Sadness at its heart
“I put the character in a position where she’s asking herself all those questions and inviting the audience to ask them too.
“Like all my favourite horror stories, there’s a deep sadness at the heart of it, (but) when the audience parts company with Felicity I hope they’ll remember it’s only when people are truly frightened that they can show genuine courage.”
Glasgow-based Maryam Hamidi also came to writing through a different route, in her case acting.
She says her story ‘I Look Down On Myself’ “is my attempt to uncrack the isolation, othering and dissociation some immigrants feel, particularly in suburban Scotland and the UK.
“Saskia Ashdown plays Ayomide as she attempts to tell the truth about herself properly for the first time… really interrogating what it means to be a living ghost, disappearing bits of yourself to fit into white society as a black or brown person.
“It’s definitely a psychological horror, responding to some big themes but with room for some irreverent humour.
“(Working in Pitlochry) gave me a sharpening sense of the complex experience of being a person of colour in suburban, semi-rural and rural Scotland, compared to the experience of living in cities.
“I grew up in suburban England after moving to the UK from Iran, and while I’m white-passing, I was constantly made aware of my race and otherness growing up.
A compounding experience
“This experience would be compounded for Ayomide, as a Scottish Nigerian in Perthshire.
“It’s been brilliant developing the character with Saskia aboard.
“I hope the story is emotionally provocative – not for cheap thrills, but because I think the horror of cultural assimilation and its impact on self-esteem and identity often goes unrecognised.
“Hopefully the dark messiness of emotions it offers will give audiences a visceral sense of that horror.”
Burns’ Tam O’ Shanter
Due to unforeseen circumstances for an actor, the third planned piece – Martin McCormick’s Played by a Ghost – will now have its premiere at Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s new Studio in September 2022.
Instead, actor Jason Harvey is performing Robert Burns’ Tam O’Shanter here.
“I hope audiences take the opportunity to see three beautifully-performed, haunting pieces written by two wonderful Scottish female writers and an iconic Scottish poet, all performed in the theatre’s picturesque Explorers’ Garden,” says Liptrott.
- Ghost Stories is at Pitlochry Festival Theatre until Sunday November 7. www.pitlochryfestivaltheatre.com
