Review: In Conversation with Alan Cumming

The opening event of this year’s Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s beloved ‘Winter Words Festival’ was a marvellous clamjamfrie of nonsense and seriousness, brilliantly corralled by Edinburgh Makar Michael Pedersen, onto which Alan Cumming somewhat coyly but joyfully jumped for the ride.

Of course, they both knew what was coming and let the audience into the format from the outset. This is a Festival of Words, not books specifically, and that’s to its credit. Cumming has, of course, written several books—and he managed to get a plug or two in for them during the show—but this was more of a whistle-stop tour through his career and what had led him to Pitlochry as Artistic Director now. Pedersen explained that we were going to be treated to some film clips along the way—a sort of illustrated talk, if you like.

Alan Cumming DJ Set – Credit Pitlochry Festival Theatre (Chris Keatch)

This format worked really well, particularly for anyone not familiar with all of Cumming’s previous work. For those who were, it was a lovely bit of nostalgia. All-in-all a very cosy show, with a few ‘insider’ moments where we got to hear about some of the jolly japes along the way. There was a serious side too, and both Pedersen and Cumming sparked off one another well.

The unexpected Artistic Director

The culmination was all about Pitlochry and how come Alan Cumming became Artistic Director when he was ensconced in life on the other side of the Pond, with Hollywood never seemingly far away and The Traitors US surely going on ad infinitum. It was all to do with a train journey and eschewing yet more booze!

This format worked really well, particularly for anyone not familiar with all of Cumming’s previous work. For those who were, it was a lovely bit of nostalgia.

Alan keeps fit—his body is a temple—and whilst he enjoys a dram, he decided one fine day on ‘Scotland’s Poshest Train’ trip to take a wee detour and hop on over to the Festival Theatre for a shooftie. After drama school, he’d been warned that Pitlochry Rep only took English actors, so not to waste his time.

Alan Cumming and Michael Pedersen – Credit Pitlochry Festival Theatre (Olivia Attwooll-Keith)

Consequently, his first-ever visit to the Theatre was that fine day when the other posh train folk were off whisky tasting. The then Artistic Director told him she was leaving and suggested he might like to apply. It wasn’t an immediate ‘done deal’ for Cumming, but when the job came up for grabs and all his pals said, ‘Oh so you’ll be applying now then’, he realised he’d been talking about it ‘A LOT’ in the interim, so the seed had definitely been sown.

Slowing down? Yeah, right!

During the brief time left for questions, Cumming was asked how he managed the transatlantic travel and was praised for his activism and very apparent joy in all he does. He’s not keen on back-to-back US-UK-US trips and is trying to minimise them. Good news for naysayers who said he’d be a bit of an ‘absentee landlord’ is that he and his husband are renovating a house in the Highlands and he is determined to ‘slow down’. Yeah, right!

Consequently, his first-ever visit to the Theatre was that fine day when the other posh train folk were off whisky tasting. The then Artistic Director told him she was leaving and suggested he might like to apply.

As for activism, it is all part of just ‘being’ if you are Alan Cumming. He said, very sincerely, I hope, that it’s all part and parcel of being Scottish: involved, caring, and politics not just being a hobby you pick up for five minutes and put down again when you’re bored by it.

And the joy? He just likes what he does and is very grateful for what his fame has allowed him. He hasn’t always enjoyed it but is thankful nonetheless for the opportunities it brings him everyday. And if you see someone dressed up looking like Alan Cumming, it’s probably Alan trying to go incognito and definitely not succeeding. His husband says the more he tries to put on a disguise, the more like Alan Cumming he looks!

And once Pedersen and Cumming left the stage, the audience was shown the acceptance speech Cumming recently gave for his Hollywood star, with a great big glorious mention of his new job and love for the Theatre—with a big and a small T. Nice one, Alan.

Featured Image: Alan Cumming and Michael Pedersen – Credit Pitlochry Festival Theatre (Olivia Attwooll-Keith)