Category Archives: theatre

Inevitable good guy/wank joke goes here...

There’s some things which don’t lend themselves obviously to the world of musical theatre.

Wuthering Heights. The Battle of Masada. Bad Girls. The Malleus Maleficarum. Anything Mike Read is involved in, no matter how his breath smells.

And perhaps The Wicker Man.

But comedian and former Off The Ball host Greg Hemphill is having a brave old stab at the latter, writing with Donald McLeary a re-interpreted version of the 1973 horror story for the National Theatre of Scotland.

According to the Scotsman the film will focus on a Highlands drama group whose lead actor mysteriously disappears while rehearsing for a production of The Wicker Man on a remote island.

As a result, the troupe is forced to call in a TV cop from the mainland to investigate.

Hmm. This all sounds a wee bit Blair Witch 2 to me, but let’s see how it pans out.

Hemphill rightly has legendary status in Scotland for hit BBC comedies Chewin’ The Fat and Still Game (oh, and he was also involved in awful C4 sci-fi panel game show Space Cadets, but we won’t mention that…).

He’s also a film geek – he opened the Mark Millar film night series we mentioned on the last podcast – and horror buff, being involved in a quirky HP Lovecraft audio movie last year.

So he’s got the credentials. And told the Hootsmon:

“We want to celebrate the film, not slavishly imitate it. We’re trying to make a horror comedy in the style and spirit of The Wicker Man.”

“I think that someone could be burned alive if it doesn’t go well, but as the Nicolas Cage adaptation shows, there has to be an understanding an appreciation of the film.”

Hemphill and McLeary’s new interpretation – directed by Vicky Featherstone – tours Scotland next year. And it’ll probably be seen by far more people than the Wicker Tree, let’s be honest.