A History of Paper
★★★★★ Devastating
Pitlochry Festival Theatre: Sun 9 Aug – Sat 12 Sept 2026
Review by Hugh Simpson
A History of Paper at Pitlochry Festival Theatre has a difficult job in following so soon after the outstanding original 2024 production of Oliver Emanuel and Gareth Williams’s musical, but does so admirably.
That production first surfaced in the intimate surroundings of Traverse 2 and came soon after Emanuel’s tragically early death, which came while in the process of adapting his original radio play as a musical. This meant that it was not necessarily easy to judge dispassionately whether the work’s utterly devastating impact, which won it rave reviews and awards, could be reproduced later. Suffice it to say that it can.
Shirley Henderson and Alan Cumming with Gavin Whitworth in A History of Paper. Pic: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan.
The musical tells the story of a (nameless) man and a woman, their meeting and their relationship, charted through a collection of pieces of paper, such as postcards, menus and receipts. In many ways it’s an unassuming piece, with none of the showy bombast you would associate with musicals, instead relying on Williams’s elegant, beautifully understated music. The depictions of falling in love, of joy and of loss, are as convincing as you could hope to see on stage. It’s both hugely funny and almost unbearably sad, and it’s utterly Scottish without shouting about it.
Dundee Rep co-produced the original with the Traverse, and have done the same with Pitlochry this time round. Once again it is directed by Dundee’s artistic director Andrew Panton. Panton’s work on the first production won him best director at the 2025 CATS awards and is every bit as impressive here – sympathetic, gorgeously expressive and making wonderful use of the auditorium.
One of the most interesting decisions taken here is having the two protagonists played by much older performers. Alan Cumming and Shirley Henderson certainly bring star quality to proceedings, but there is nothing showy or grandstanding about the performances.
vivid emotional heft
Cumming brings a vivid emotional heft to the bookshop worker and would-be novelist, demonstrating the wonder of the first flush of love with real magnetism. Sometimes the shifts in mood seem a little abrupt, but the overall effect is compelling.
Henderson, meanwhile, is magnificent as the journalist who is intense and rather snarky in an endearingly off-centre way. One of the best things about A History of Paper is the way that while so many musicals have songs apparently shoehorned into the narrative, here the music flows naturally out of the story. Often fragmentary, the songs appear to be natural expressions of the characters’ emotions and are sung because that’s the natural thing to do at the time. Henderson is brilliant at this, moving from half-speaking to singing in a way that is completely captivating.
Alan Cumming, Gavin Whitworth and Shirley Henderson in A History of Paper. Pic: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan.
Musical director Gavin Whitworth, who plays piano on stage, is totally integrated into a production that benefits from Alexandra Faye Braithwaite’s very fine sound design. The larger scale of this version is reflected by the staging, with Ana Inés Jabares-Pita’s design and Bruno Poet’s lighting filling the space imposingly.
There are moments when the larger scale of the production does work against it. When events in the wider world impinge on the story (something that cannot possibly be discussed without spoilers) a version with a more ambitious reach has a little more trouble bearing the weight of these than the original did.
But even if this isn’t quite as good as the most emotionally resonant production seen on the Scottish stage in recent years, it’s still extraordinary in its own right.
Running time: One hour and 10 minutes including one interval
Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Port-na-craig Road, Pitlochry, PH16 5DR
Sunday 9 August – Saturday 12 September 2026
Tues – Sat: 7.30pm; Mats Thurs, Sat, Sun: 2pm
Tickets and details: Book here.
Dundee Rep, ADDRESS.
Wednesday 16 – Saturday 19 September 2026.
Evenings: 7.30pm, Thur, Sat mat: 2pm.
Tickets and details: Book here.
Alan Cumming and Shirley Henderson in A History of Paper. Pic: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan.
ENDS
