I’ll Be Seeing You at the Pitlochry Festival Theatre*****

Written on the wall in the foyer of the Pitlochry Festival Theatre are the words, ‘This building is full of magic and joy and mischief and emotion…’ And Alan Cumming is delivering all of these in spades during his exciting first season, not least in the incredible I’ll Be Seeing You, starring Sir Simon Russell Beale. It was so sad, then, to see a multi award-winner used to sold out performances in London’s West End playing to a half empty house in Pitlochry. But more on that later.

I’ll Be Seeing You, written by Martin Sherman, stars another heavyweight actor Fra Fee as a young writer struggling to write a play about a man he can’t abide. 

From the outset this feels like an intimate, small scale production, almost cosy, with Fee talking directly to the audience about his difficulties. But there is no getting away from the fact that what we are being treated to is a mighty production with Beale, said to be the greatest actor of his generation, playing the most flamboyant of all performers in a highly camp, fun spectacular, from his first entrance, mid air in a cloud of feathers through an array of extravagant surprises which leave us gasping and laughing at the same time.

Liberace was a pianist, dripping in rhinestones, who was once the highest paid artiste in the world, but the writer wants to concentrate on a trial in which Mr Showmanship sued the Daily Mirror for suggesting he was gay. And as he frets over what he is going to write, Liberace himself turns up to put him right.

It’s full of surprises, gloriously outrageous, and to top it all, the playwright (the real one), Martin Sherman, is, at the age of 87, making his stage debut, in a beautifully understated performance, looking somewhat bemused.

As for the lack of bums on seats, I’ve totally fallen in love with this ‘theatre in the hills’ and its productions and beseech anyone to give it a try. Pitlochry is a a beautiful location in the centre of Scotland with direct train links to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness… OK, it takes one-and-a-half to two hours to get there so why don’t you stay over like I did this week. And with that in mind, Mr Cumming, you have already come up with so many good ideas, how about getting together with local hoteliers and b&bs to offer all inclusive theatre breaks. 

I’ll Be Seeing You is at the Pitlochry Festival Theatre until Oct 11

pitlochryfestivaltheatre.com