Photo Flash: First Look at Dundee Rep Theatre's THE CHEVIOT, THE STAG AND THE BLACK, BLACK OIL

Dundee Rep Theatre presents the forthcoming tour of The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil this autumn. Associate Artistic Director Joe Douglas will be reunited with the stellar creative team and many members of the ensemble cast who received wide spread critical praise for the production which smashed box office records at the venue in September 2015. This will be the first professional tour of the play in over twenty years. Scroll down for a first look at the cast onstage!

Graham McLaren (joint Director /CEO of The Abbey Theatre Dublin) will be returning as designer, as will award-winning composer and Cheviot cast member, Alasdair Macrae, Scottish lighting designer, Kate Bonney, composer and musician Michael John McCarthy, as Sound Designer and artist Lewis den Hertog, as video designer.

New cast members include Ewan Donald (recent credits include David Greig's sequel to Macbeth Dunsinane with National Theatre of Scotland and Royal Shakespeare Company) and Barrie Hunter (recent credits with Dundee Rep Theatre include Sunshine on Leith).

Returning cast members include Jo Freer (who played Rhona Lindsay in BBC Scotland River City); longstanding Dundee Rep Ensemble members, Irene Macdougall (who recently directed the critically acclaimed Dundee Rep Theatre production Much Ado About Nothing) and Emily Winter. Dundee actor Stephen Bangs also returns as does the award winning performer, Billy Mack, BBC Alba actor Calum MacDonald (who recently appeared in the National Theatre of Scotland's 'Uisge Beatha gu Leor' / Whisky Galore); and Christina Gordon, a recent graduate from the Royal Conservatoire Scotland.

The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil is widely considered to be a cornerstone of contemporary Scottish theatre. It is considered one of Scotland's first theatrical examples of docu-drama and verbatim story-telling and has been hailed as greatly influencing generations of theatre-makers in Scotland and beyond, as well as drawing in new audiences through its unique story-telling. Written by British playwright, director and political theorist John McGrath, who often took up the cause of Scottish independence in his plays, McGrath is renowned for embracing the techniques of Music Hall, Variety and especially the ceilidh to appeal to audiences across the social classes.

Many of the issues and themes covered in The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil, are as topical today as they were back in the 1970s, such as, Scottish land reform, the North Sea oil industry and the treatment of working people in the Highlands and Islands.

The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil will once again be performed at Dundee Rep Theatre from 31 August until 10 September before embarking on a Scottish tour visiting the Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh, His Majesty's Theatre, Aberdeen, Eden Court Theatre, Inverness and the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, until 22 October 2016.

Photo Credit: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan

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