PHOTOGRAPHY BY TOMMY GA-KEN WAN

It’s always a pleasure chatting with Alan Cumming – the BAFTA, Emmy, Tony and Olivier-winning actor and all-round queer icon. During a break in filming for the new Russell T Davies series Tip Toe, we caught up with Alan to discuss the queer theatre plans he has for 2026. He recently took over as the Artistic Director of Scotland’s Pitlochry Festival Theatre, and has been busily curating new queer arts festival Out in the Hills, as well as a programme for the 2026 season.

So how has your time at the theatre been so far?

I’ve not actually been very often – next year is when I’m more permanently there. But in February I curated the writer’s festival, that was the first thing under my tenure that was in the building, so I really wanted to make sure that I put my stamp on it. I DJ’d this party on a Saturday night, in the foyer, that was just epic. There were hundreds of people dancing around – the whole town! – I think the bar made more that day than it had ever made. It was just a magical night, I felt – this is gonna be ok, I’ve got the support of everybody, I can make this a joyful place.

Tell us more about the Out in the Hills festival – how did that come about?

I just thought it up! Partly because there’s nothing much happening in the theatre in January, there’s usually just this big blank, and I couldn’t understand why. People are still there, people don’t leave Pitlochry, and there’s this thing we’re trying to do, to make Pitlochry more of a destination – so you have to keep doing that throughout the year. I thought it would be lovely, on one of those cold dark January nights, to do something joyous, and make people come for a few days and have a little break.

Also, in a time when LGBTQ+ people are so under threat, when trans people are being litigated against, there’s been such a spike in hate crimes against us… what would be lovely to do, would be to have a celebration of us, and of the contributions LGBTQ+ people have made to society and to culture. I just thought that would be a lovely thing to do – for everyone to be able to do! – to show solidarity. All you hear are negative things, right now, in the news about the queer community, so let’s do something positive, let’s do something joyous. That was my little joyful protest, I suppose.

The Out in the Hills festival will take place 16-18 January 2026. All the works will have a queer angle – are there any more specific themes being explored?

It’s a smorgasbord really, it’s eclectic! I love that, there are such sweet things, international things, more local things. That’s my whole modus operandi for running this theatre: to encourage local talent, as well as bringing international things from around the world. We have a trans guy in our workshop who told us about this local group called Camp Trans, it’s a camp where trans people can go and have their own time together. Some people made a film about it, so we’re showing that film – it’s beautiful! I love the idea that this has come from a guy in our workshop, as well as having, you know, Ian McKellen coming in.

I’m really looking forward to… Neil Bartlett, who’s a hero of mine, came to me with this adaptation of a Noel Coward short story called Me and the Girls – I always loved that short story. So we’re doing a rehearsed reading of that, it’s really interesting, in the way that Noel Coward was seen in the 1960s as this sort of dinosaur, really the antithesis of all the Angry Young Men and all the stuff that was going on – actually he was writing this short story, being very frank about this character’s homosexuality. We all think we know what Noel Coward’s all about, it almost shines a whole new light on him.