Alan Cumming and Ewan McGregor to star in World Premiere of Supernova
Ewan McGregor (image by Jeff Vespa) and Alan Cumming (image by Tommy Ga-Ken Wan).
A brand-new stage adaptation of Harry Macqueen’s acclaimed 2020 film Supernova will be staged at the Pitlochry Festival Theatre in summer 2027. The film, which starred Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci, will mark Macqueen’s stage debut.
Award-winning actors Alan Cumming (The High Life-The Musical) and Ewan McGregor (Trainspotting) will lead the production directed by John Tiffany (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Once), who is joined by movement director Steven Hoggett. They will also be joined by Associate Director Sam Hardie (Beautiful, The Carole King Story), with additional creatives to be announced soon.
Supernova follows Sam and Tusker, a couple who have been together for 20 years. But since Tusker’s early-onset dementia diagnosis, their lives have changed forever. Now, the two are setting off on a road trip chasing the memories they've built, visiting the people they love and dodging the future they can't outrun. Supernova is an unmissable, searing examination of what we are willing to do for the people we love.
Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s Artistic Director Alan Cumming said:
"I am so excited to welcome Ewan, a fellow Perthshire home boy, to Pitlochry Festival Theatre for this extraordinary theatre event. Harry Macqueen has adapted his beautiful film, and John Tiffany and Steven Hoggett (fresh from their Pitlochry Festival Theatre triumph with Once) join forces with the theatrical wizard Jamie Harrison to create an evening of true magic. A love story, a treatise on life and death itself and a visual feast - with two Scottish laddies at its heart. What more could you want?!"
Actor Ewan McGregor said:
“I am so delighted to be working at Pitlochry Festival Theatre next summer on the beautiful ‘Supernova’ with my old friend Alan. I have been very moved by the work so far on the text by Harry Macqueen who is adapting his own screenplay. We are going to be discovering this story with the amazing team of John Tiffany, Jamie Harrison and Steven Hoggett and it’s going to be quite something to throw myself into this role with such an extraordinary group of visionaries. I can’t wait to get started and to bring this piece to the stage. I look forward to seeing you all there!”
On making his stage debut as a playwright Harry Macqueen said:
"I'm beyond thrilled to be able to give this story and these characters new life on stage, and to be doing so alongside such incredible collaborators. Supernova engages with some of life's most challenging questions. With debate about end-of-life choices still raging, perhaps these questions feel more prescient now than ever."
The Pitlochry Festival Theatre production of Supernova will run in the Auditorium from 24 July until 21 August 2027 with press night on Friday 30 July 2027.
