New Scottish musical Flora to premiere in Inverness and Glasgow

New musical Flora gives voice to one of Scotland’s most famous daughters, stepping beyond her fleeting role in Jacobite history to tell her full life story.

From footnote to heroine: Flora in focus

Flora MacDonald is one of the most recognisable names in Scottish history — immortalised in song and statue for helping Bonnie Prince Charlie evade capture after Culloden. Yet her role is often reduced to a passing mention: the young woman who disguised the Young Pretender as her maid and rowed him “over the sea to Skye.”

In March 2026, her story will be given fuller voice in Flora, a new musical by writer Belle Jones, produced by Genesis Theatre Productions. The show premieres at Eden Court, Inverness (20–21 March) before transferring to The Pavilion, Glasgow (26–28 March).

For Jones, the project grew from childhood familiarity into creative obsession. “Growing up in the Highlands I was always sort of aware of Flora MacDonald’s name, especially as there’s a prominent statue of her outside the castle in Inverness,” she explained. “It was only when I looked into her life story that I realised how much more there was to her life after helping Bonnie Prince Charlie escape. Her brief encounter with the Young Pretender happened in her early 20s but she lived until she was 68, surviving imprisonment, famine, emigration and war.”

“It was only when I looked into her life story that I realised how much more there was to her life after helping Bonnie Prince Charlie escape.”

Belle Jones

Jones was particularly struck by the way history had framed MacDonald. “With such a rich backdrop to her story, and with every autobiographical account she gave filtered through the men who wrote it down, I thought it would be interesting to explore how she might tell her epic life story in her own words.”

Music rooted in tradition, sharpened for today

The production’s score will carry both tradition and reinvention. It is written by AJ Robertson, whose credits include the BBC Proms and The Seven Sorrows (Celtic Connections), and John Kielty, co-creator of Glasgow Girls and The Stamping Ground. The pairing brings together two distinct musical backgrounds.

Robertson reflected: “It has been a really enjoyable experience to work with John to bring the story of Flora to life through Belle’s lyrics. With John and I coming from different musical worlds, we have had fun fusing our styles to create something that feels rooted in tradition but with a contemporary edge.”

Kielty’s own experience as both composer and performer lends the project a folk-operatic breadth, while Robertson’s orchestral sensibility ensures scale. The result promises what the producers call a “whirlwind of ensemble storytelling,” with MacDonald narrating her own story across shifting landscapes of sound.

A reluctant heroine on stage

Unlike many celebrated women of the Jacobite cause, MacDonald’s participation appears to have been reluctant. Jones emphasised this difference: “As well as deep-diving into her biography, I researched other Jacobean heroines and was struck by the fact that while many women took fearless, purposeful action for the cause they believed in, Flora seems to have been coerced into the situation which made her famous. This also felt like a really interesting element to explore: a reluctant heroine who just wanted to keep her family safe.”

Director Stasi Schaeffer, whose career spans theatre and opera from the Traverse to Scottish Opera and the Royal Conservatoire, was drawn to this tension between history and myth. “I am very interested in Scottish stories, especially untold ones and I was even more excited that it is a new musical. The way Belle is telling a historical story in a very modern way is compelling to me and will be a treat for audiences as well.”

Supporting new Scottish writing

The staging of Flora underscores the role of smaller producing houses in developing Scottish new writing. Genesis Theatre Productions, founded by producer Michelle McKay in 2023, has already supported plays for the Traverse, Stellar Quines and A Play, A Pie and A Pint. McKay’s aim is to give new voices the resources to reach larger stages.

“The way Belle is telling a historical story in a very modern way is compelling to me and will be a treat for audiences as well.”

Director Stasi Schaeffer

The company has secured funding from The National Lottery through Creative Scotland and Foundation Scotland’s Cockaigne Fund, with support from Eden Court and the Trafalgar Group. For audiences in Inverness and Glasgow, the production will be a chance to see a Highland heroine reclaimed through song and theatre.

Tickets and dates

Eden Court, Inverness: 20–21 March 2026 (7pm; Sat matinee 2.30pm)

The Pavilion, Glasgow: 26–28 March 2026 (7.30pm; Sat matinee 2.30pm)

Tickets go on sale from Friday 12 September 2025 via Eden Court and Trafalgar Tickets.

For McKay, the process has been as rewarding as the product: “Working with Belle since the inception of Flora, watching the show take shape and develop has been a joy. Belle is a real talent and it was no mean feat to make a compelling story from such a reluctant heroine. Blending the traditional with a modern twist throughout the production, we hope the audiences will be drawn in by Flora’s story while having a great night at the theatre.”