A chance to sample new plays penned by Courier Country talents lies in store at Dundee Rep’s returning literary festival.
Red Stripped debuted in 2019 and is back for a four-day run next week. It gives some of Scottish theatre’s upcoming artists a platform to present new ideas in its characteristically raw format.
Road-testing ideas
Dundee Rep’s artistic director Andrew Panton reckons the event encourages experimentation while providing writers with an opportunity to road-test ideas with live audience feedback.
“Rep Stripped is a hugely important part of our work,” he says.
“By supporting emergent talent to develop, we nurture the creative ecology to ensure future generations of theatre-makers have a platform – and we’re excited about the direct input audiences will have into our future work.”
Potential highlights include a dark satire on the role of the worker in the 21st Century by Calum Kelly, one half of Dundee theatre company Elfie Picket.
Then there’s a reworked Last Queen Of Scotland by Jaimini Jethwa, which looks at her Ugandan roots 50 years after her family arrived in Dundee as refugees.
There’s also a new piece of “gig theatre” by Johnny McKnight in collaboration with Laura Wilde and The View frontman Kyle Falconer on the theme of post-natal depression.
And there are fresh offerings from gay wordsmiths Aidhan Gallagher and Christopher Dean.
Red Stripped, Dundee Rep, June 1-4, dundeerep.co.uk