Part of Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s spring season, Water Colour is a story about connection, mental illness and the chance encounter of strangers on the Clyde

Why did Pitlochry Festival Theatre feel like the ideal home for Water Colour?

It’s such a beautiful, intimate studio space and the stories of the characters of Esme and Harris are so personal. The audience are definitely going to feel like they are up close and personal with the characters and the story. The studio also has an incredible brick wall, which we are exposing in the design, which will help to bring the reality of the gritty urban landscape of Glasgow to the rural highlands.

When do you feel you really got your break as both an actor and director?

I was lucky enough to work on a touring production with the theatre company 7:84 as my first job out of college, and we toured to every theatre and nook and cranny of Scotland. It was a great part and a lot of directors saw the show, then I got asked to audition and one job led to another. Thankfully it’s stayed consistent over the years and touch wood that continues! And directing: I had been directing at colleges for a few years before directing my first Play Pie Pint, which was offered to me by the two awesome women running it at the time – Morag Fullerton and April Chamberlain. I was then asked to direct a main stage show at Dundee Rep.

Water Colour came to the stage through the St Andrews Playwriting Award, which supports the next generation of playwrights living in Scotland. What advice would you give to someone first starting out in directing?

I would say get in as many rehearsal rooms as you can, ask to shadow a director you’re interested in, apply for all of the bursaries available and get your hours of experience up. That way when you come to direct your own work, you will have started to develop the way you enjoy to work and being in a rehearsal room will be like second nature.

Award-winning actor and director, Sally Reid

How was it working alongside playwright Milly Sweeney on her debut?

Milly is a brilliant writer and has such great vision and ideas. We have met up a couple of times before rehearsals start and shared some thoughts about character and story to take into rehearsals and she’s been great to meet. I think she’s a brilliant talent.

One in nine people in Scotland now report having a mental health condition, alongside higher rates of loneliness. How did you approach the subjects covered in Water Colour in a way you felt would resonate with audiences?

I like to do research on the subject, period and place of any play I’m working on and I feel like the research material around Water Colour was so easily accessible. I think since the pandemic and the isolation that it brought to so many people, we feel more connected to loneliness and mental health conditions. And although the story centres around two young people, I think an audience of any age would resonate with it.

The play touches on the kindness of strangers. In a society that can feel increasingly insular, how are the characters encouraged to open up to the world?

I think the kindness in the play comes upon the characters when they least expect it. They both don’t realise they are suffering and don’t know what help is out there for them. But ultimately they open up when they look out and up from the world they are suffocated by.

How do you think the arts can be crucial in fostering connection within an increasingly divided world?

We need art to help us understand this mad world, to see things in a different way, to open our eyes and allow us to feel emotions and express ourselves. It’s therapeutic, it’s engaging and it just makes sense.

Debut playwright, Milly Sweeney

You’ve spoken about the life-changing effect of your award-winning performance in Shirley Valentine. In what way has the character remained with you?

I went to see a production of it in Liverpool last weekend and the actress was sublime. I couldn’t believe how emotionally connected I felt to the story and the character and it was wonderful to hear the play again. There were sections in it that maybe I’d forgotten, and when I came out it reminded me about that sense of freedom I had when I was performing it last year. My friend sometimes says to me: ‘Be more Shirley’. I know what she means – a chance to be who you want to be and that for me is freedom. I feel incredibly grateful and fortunate that I can say that.

What future projects can we look forward to?

I am directing the Tron Theatre’s panto at the end of the year and I have just finished directing at River City which will be out in July… and then who knows! The joy and freedom of the job.

Water Colour runs in the Studio at Pitlochry Festival Theatre from 9th until 17th May and then will head to the Byre Theatre on 28th and 29 May