Writers: Oliver Emanuel & Gareth Williams
Director: Andrew Panton
Musical Director: Gavin Whitworth
What use is paper? Fragile, transitory, disposable (maybe?) – but sometimes surprisingly resilient, and a repository for matters trivial and profound. Oliver Emanuel and Gareth Williams’ A History of Paper gathers up the fragments of paper that delineate a relationship, and Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s new production weaves a bittersweet tale with extraordinary emotional heft.
Alan Cumming and Shirley Henderson, who first worked together as actors in a TV drama aged 21 and 20, take to the stage together for the first time, and how appropriate that this play looks back at a youthful relationship from a perspective of experience and maturity. As the story begins, ‘He’ is a bookseller and would-be writer; ‘She’ is a journalist. Together they rummage through the souvenirs that record their life together, and relive those moments of joy and pain. Cumming and Henderson make a charming couple – as their relationship gets off the ground, he beams with delight, unable to believe his good fortune, while she is playful and quick-witted. Their love story is absolutely believable, told with the help of extracts from a book about the history of paper in many forms. We are drawn into two lives that initially appear ordinary in many ways, universal in their dreams and failings, later caught up in a moment that changes everything, forever.
Designer Ana Inés Jabares-Pita and Lighting Designer Bruno Poet have conjured an atmospheric space that focuses attention on the couple, with visual surprises and luscious lighting effects. Musical Director Gavin Whitworth is on stage at the piano throughout, and his contribution runs from delicate background colour to accompaniment for songs and a beautiful vocal part too. A standing ovation at the end was testament to the impact of the piece; it is a rare privilege to feel so emotionally invested in characters’ lives that you feel you’ll carry them with you into your own future.
Runs until 12 September 2026 | Image: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan
