MOST RECENT PRODUCTIONS
ALI BABA AN' TWARTREE THIEVES on 29 NOVEMBER - 9 DECEMBER 2023
Directed and Produced by Morag Mouat. Written by Mandy Phillips.
Gene Genie appears from the magic lamp
Find out if Ali Baba, a good hearted but impoverished woodcutter, can save the Kingdom of Wakhah and thwart the evil Vizier and his twartree thieves. Of course he will need a little help from his Mammy and unlikely four legged camel friend Bob.
You can read the local production review here
POLLYANNA PARADOX on 25 NOVEMBER
Written and directed by Stephenie Georgia in collaboration with Shetland Women's Aid and the Compass Centre.
The cast of Pollyanna Paradox performed in Mareel
‘There is always something about everything you can be glad about, if you keep hunting long enough to find it.'
Pollyanna Paradox is an original audio play exploring the felt impact of coercive control on a family. The play is centred around the character of ‘Polly’, a survivor of domestic abuse. A year following the death of her husband she is returning to their villa in Spain with her family to make some big life decisions as the ripples of her husband's coercive control make their presence felt.
This play has been written by local playwright Stephenie Georgia with creative input from survivors of domestic abuse in Shetland. It will be staged as part of this year's 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence.
This was a live reading of an audio play. Following the production, the audience was welcomed to join a panel of local experts for a Q&A session.
You can read the local production review here
CALENDAR GIRLS on 29 MARCH - 1 APRIL 2022
Directed and Produced by Stephenie Pagulayan
The Calendar Girls learn about the *wonder* of brocolli at their WI meeting
Based on the true story of eleven older women who posed nude for a calendar to raise money for the Leukaemia Research Fund, Calendar Girls opened at the Chichester Festival Theatre and has since become the fastest-selling play in British theatre history.
You can read the local production review here.
FRAGMENTED on 26 NOVEMBER 2021
Written, Directed and Produced by Stephenie Pagulayan in association with Shetland Arts, Shetland Women's Aid and the Compass Centre.
A one act play exploring the impact and trauma of childhood sexual abuse in adult life. It explores how an adult survivor, ‘Evelyn’, copes with her conflicting inner identity and outer persona as she comes to terms with what happened to her as a child.
You can read the local production review here.
YOU MADE ME: OLIVER on 30 APRIL 2021
Written by Stephenie Pagulayan. Directed & Produced by Morag Mouat in association with Shetland Arts as part of Refresh Now.
You Made Me is a series of 6 interconnected one act plays exploring 3 generations of the same family. ‘Oliver’ is the concluding piece to the collection. Centred around his character, Oliver comes across as misogynistic and arrogant but as the play develops, and we encounter the females in his life, we come to see that all is not quite as it seems.
Notice: IDG would like to advise the public that this production does include strong language/content from the start.
Read the local production review here
A LIFE OF WIR CHOOSIN on 23 APRIL 2021
Written by Lesley Leslie. Directed & Produced by Jennie Atkinson in association with Shetland Arts as part of Refresh Now.
This new radio play follows the herring trail from Yarmouth to Shetland in the early 1900s, and a friendship that develops along the way between guttie lass Chrissy and well-to-do Emily.
Read the local production review here
MARION PARDONE on 1 APRIL 2021
Written by Lesley Leslie. Directed & Produced by Jennie Atkinson in association with BBC Radio Shetland.
The play is about the imprisonment and questioning of Mistress Pardone in Scalloway, which was the capital of Shetland in 1645. The interrogation by Churchman Black shows how words and actions can be twisted and misunderstood. Marion Pardone is a story of its time, about real people and how ignorance and rumour can affect lives.
Read the local production review here
PRISONER OF WAR on 18 FEBRUARY 2021
Written by Lesley Leslie. Directed & Produced by Jennie Atkinson in association with BBC Radio Shetland.
Through the discovery of diaries and letters, Prisoner of War tells the story of the friendship between Rose and Allessandro, an Italian Prisoner of War helping out on the croft in Scatness. Not everyone was comfortable with the Italian’s presence but Rose and Allessandro‘s friendship grows slowly to love only for them to be parted at the end of the War when he returns to Italy
Read the local production review here
THE CRUCIBLE on 14 - 16 NOVEMBER 2019
Directed and Produced by Stephenie Pagulayan
This exciting drama about the Puritan purge of witchcraft in old Salem is both a gripping historical play and a timely parable of our contemporary society. The story tells “how small lies - children’s lies - build and build until a whole town is aroused and 19 men and women go to the gallows for being possessed of the Devil ... They are good men and women, upright, hardworking, compassionate and Godfearing ... (The story) focuses upon a young farmer, his wife and a young servant girl who maliciously causes the wife’s arrest for witchcraft. The farmer brings the girl to court to admit the lie - and here, in this trial scene, is the big moment. It is a thrilling, bloodcurdling, terrifying scene, as it depicts the monstrous course of bigotry and deceit.
Read the local production review here
I REMEMBER MAMA on 27 - 29 MARCH 2019
Directed and Produced by Morag Mouat
The play is based on Kathryn Forbes' novel Mama's Bank Account. It is told through the reminiscences of daughter Katrin who recollects her life growing up in early twentieth century San Francisco with her Norwegian immigrant family. It tells the timeless story of the sacrifices a mother makes to assure her family (especially her children) always have everything they need.
PUSS IN BOOTS on 28 NOVEMBER - 8 DECEMBER 2018
Directed and Produced by Stanley Manson
Puss in Boots
The story is centuries old, and a venerable panto favourite. The miller’s adopted son, Jack, inherits naught but a cat and a shilling from his late father’s estate, while his two idiot boys inherit the mill and fortune. Only a little disheartened, the effortlessly-likeable Jack (Donna Marie Leask) spend his shilling on a pair of magic boots for the cat, Puss (played, in mime by Lois Phillips), which suddenly renders Puss with the ability to talk (and to be played by Mandy Phillips).
ABSURD PERSON SINGULAR on 28 / 29 / 30 MARCH 2018
Directed and Produced by Morag Mouat
Read the local review of the production here
Absurd Person Singular
This 3 act play takes place over last Christmas, this Christmas and next Christmas. 3 couples meet at a party - bank manager Ronald Brewster-Wright and his alcoholic wife Marion, architect Geoffrey Jackson and his emotionally-scarred wife Eve, and finally tradesman Sidney Hopcroft and his housework-obsessed wife Jane. Being the seventies, it goes without saying that none of the wives have jobs. Funny, gripping and wretchingly truthful the play slices into the soul of suburbia.
Read the local review of the production here.
BLUE STOCKINGS on 9 / 10 / 11 NOVEMBER 2017
Directed and Produced by Stephenie Pagulayan
Blue Stockings
Love or knowledge: which would you choose?’
1896. Girton College, Cambridge, the first college in Britain to admit women. The Girton girls study ferociously and match the male peers grade for grade. Yet, when the men graduate, the women leave with nothing but the stigma of being a ‘blue stocking’ - an unnatural, educated woman. They are denied degrees and go home unqualified and unmarriagable.
In Jessica Swale’s debut play, Blue Stockings, Tess Moffat and her fellow first years are determined to win the right to graduate. But little do they anticipate the hurdles in their way: the distraction of love, the cruelty of the class divide or the strength of the opposition, who will do anything to stop them. The play follow them over one tumultuous academic year, in their fight to change the future of education.
Read the local review of the production here.
ON GOLDEN POND on 28 / 29 / 30 MARCH 2017
Directed and Produced by Morag Mouat
Teenager Billy (Reece Paul) with Chelsea.
An original script by Ernest Thompson. Read the local review of the production here.
THE TANKARD on 6 MARCH 2017
Directed and Produced by Stanley Manson
The Tankard
MOTHER GOOSE on 30 NOVEMBER – 10 DECEMBER 2016
Directed and Produced by Jennie Atkinson
The cast of Mother Goose
An original pantomime script by Alan P Frayn published by Stage Right Creative Ltd. Read the local review of the pantomime online here.
A TRIO OF PLAYS 22 MARCH 2016
Produced by Islesburgh Drama Group, Brenna Players & Ronas Drama
Esther and Daisy from Playing with Daisy
PLAYING WITH DAISY 9 MARCH 2016
Directed and Produced by Stanley Manson
The overall winning play in of this year's festival was Playing With Daisy, which picked up four awards. From left: Stephanie Pagulayan, Stanley Manson and Donna-Marie Leask. Photo: Dave Donaldson
2016 Shetland County Drama Festival Awards:
- Open Section
- Adult Individual for Stephenie Pagulayan (Esther) & Donna-Marie Leask (Daisy)
- Best Stage Presentation
- Overall Winner
Read the local review of the festival online here.
PARKING LOT IN PITTSBURGH on 11/12/13 NOVEMBER 2015
Directed and Produced by Stanley Manson
Parking Lot in Pittsburgh Young Maggie & Young Jim
An appealing mixture of comedy and pathos that straddles continents as well as emotions. Anne Downie's play is about emigration, independence and coming home. Maggie - a woman in her late 70's returning to Scotland after half a century in the US - ruminates on what it means to be away for most of her life. "Funny, when you look back from over there, it's kind of on freeze - frame. But everybody else fast forwards. Nothing stays the same".
Maggie's four terrible sisters fighting over the money she has made abroad. Her life in the US has long been repository for their dreams, a fantastical counterpoint to their own disappointments, she too has only a dream of what life in Scotland might be like. She soon sees that the culture she left behind has moved on without her: when she first arrives she wants to taste Scottish dishes that her young nieces have never heard of, and when the sisters take her on a night out, it is to a local club to line dance.
Read the local review by the Shetland Times here.
THE 39 STEPS on 25/26/27 MARCH 2015
Directed and Produced by Morag Mouat
The 39 Steps
The stage version of John Buchan's The 39 Steps romps through a series of improbable adventures en route to the Highlands of Scotland and requires a lot of inspirational acting and staging to direct the audience through this fast paced, far fetched but probable story. The play is a huge challenge for the cast of only four actors, two of whom swap hats and voices at great speed in conversations on trains, bridges and in remote Highland houses. The play was a great challenge for the director, actors and backstage crew but the comedy and atmosphere of each individual scene was played to the limit and was hugely appreciated by packed audiences every night.
Read the local review by the Shetland Times here.
BABES IN THE WOOD on 26 NOVEMBER - 6 DECEMBER 2014
Directed and Produced by Stanley Manson
Babes in the Wood Baddies
The evil Sheriff of Nottingham has found out that his niece and nephew (the two Babes of the title) have inherited a fortune on the death of their father. Eager to get his hands on the money he plots their disappearance with the help of his two idiotic henchmen, Floggem and Whippem, and Nell Nightshade, the witch of Sherwood. But the Sheriff hasn’t reckonedon Robin Hood and his Merry Men. The outlaw of Sherwood Forest is all for thwarting any plans the Sheriff has for adding to his wealth and withthe help of the lovely Maid Marionand the comical Babes Nurse, Jemima Jollop, they set out to right the wrongs and bring about a happy ending. Greenwillow, the goodly Sprite of Sherwood, is on hand to keep watch over the proceedings.
Read the Shetland News Review here.
FALLEN ANGELS on 27/28/29 MARCH 2014
Directed and Produced by Andy Long
The cast of Fallen Angels
Fallen Angels is the comedic story of Julia and Jane, two upper-class women in England in the early 1900’s. They are married to Fred and Willy, two respectable Englishman. When Maurice, a former French lover, shows up in England while the two women's husbands are away on a golf trip, he reminds the two housewives what they might be missing. Julia and Jane become concerned that secrets from their past will be revealed, and comedic antics ensue. Fallen Angels is very much a comedy of manners among the “upper crust” society in early 20th Century England.
Read the local review from Shetland News here.
OUR VERY FIRST PRODUCTION WAS THE WINSLOW BOY IN 1950!
To view a list of all productions and pantomimes please click below: