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Pibroch 2023 Tour

March 20, 2023 Johnbolland Leave a comment

2 weeks to go!

Pibroch is coming to a place near you in the coming months – assuming you live in Scotland.

Thanks to the support of Creative Scotland and the National Lottery through their Touring Fund programme – and the continuing support of the Pibroch creative and production team – we’ll be taking the show to venues across Scotland between April and July of this year.

Kicking off on Sunday 2nd April at the Lemon Tree in Aberdeen as part of Climate Week North East, we’ll be visiting community venues, art centres and theatres in all corners of Scotland between now and our final performance at The Barn Arts Centre in Banchory on 6th July, the 35th anniversary of the Piper Alpha disaster.

Pibroch uses searing poetry created by Aberdeenshire-based writer and artist John Bolland, and mixes it with live music and striking visual imagery.

This multi-media performance represents the personal and social experiences of Piper Alpha survivors and their relationship to the challenges each of us face in a warming world – our very own burning platform – with a pressing need for change. It aims to inform, challenge and encourage that discussion.

Already we’re getting great press coverage in The Scotsman and Aberdeen Live. Tickets are onsale online for most of the venues, the set is built and van-ready and the team are excited to be going into final rehearsal at the Anatomy Rooms in Aberdeen next week.

16 out of the 17 programmed performances are now firmed up as shown on the map and listing below. The final venue is in the pipeline. Watch this space.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Pibroch-Tour-Venues-20230305-1024x723.png — Pibroch On Tour – Confirmed Venues 20th March 2023

2^nd April – Lemon Tree, Aberdeen

20^th April – Mareel, Lerwick

22nd April, Peterhead Theatre, Peterhead

1^st May – Lyth Art Centre, Wick

3rd May, Lochinver Village Hall

4^th May – An Lanntair, Stornaway

5^th May – Balivanich Community Hall, Benbecula

6th May – Braes Community Hall, Skye

19^th May – Harbour Arts, Irvine

20^th May – The Beacon, Greenock

23rd May – Catstrand, New Galloway

22nd May – Moffat Town Hall

4th June – Scottish Story Telling Centre, Edinburgh

6^th June – Gardyne Theatre, Broughty Ferry

7^th June – The Byre, St. Andrews

6^th July – The Barn, Banchory

Ticket sales are also available through our Linktree site as they become available.

It’s all a bit daunting. Fourteen months ago we were still working out how to stage our premiere show at the marvellous Glenbuchat Hall, in mid-winter and amidst the COVID emergency. Today we’re ready to do it again in venues small and big across Scotland: 17 times!

Our tour programming explicitly aims to bring the show to places and communities affected by the Piper Alpha Disaster and the Climate Emergency. The post-industrial and remote island communities from which so many of the offshore workforce was drawn – many of which now face bearing the brunt of Climate Change and Climate Transition.

And, of course, copies of Pibroch – The Book are still available through this website or from its wonderful publisher at Red Squirrel Press.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is DSC_0081-2.jpg

Looking forward to seeing you seeing us sometime in 2023!

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Pibroch

We’re Touring!

January 4, 2023 Johnbolland Leave a comment

So! The drum roll moment…Pibroch will be touring Scotland in 2023!
Thanks to the support of Creative Scotland and the National Lottery through their Touring Fund programme – and the continuing support of the Pibroch creative and production team – we’ll be taking the show to venues across Scotland between April and July of this year.
Our Producer, Martin Aitken, has been working hard in the back ground to set up performances at venues big and small across Scotland and tickets are already on sale at a number of the venues.
The creative team have already begun work n what we can learn from the performances of 2022 and how the show can be improved. Karen Tennent, joining the team as set designer, has already proposed new and exciting ideas for the staging of the show – accommodating the need to get-in, get out and move on within tight deadlines and in a variety of spaces ranging from the Byre Theatre in St. Andrews to Linaclate Hall in Benbecula
14 out of the 17 programmed performances are already firmed up as shown on the map and listing below. Others are already in the pipeline.

Pibroch On Tour – Confirmed Venues 9th Feb. 2023

2^nd April – Lemon Tree, Aberdeen

20^th April – Mareel, Lerwick

1^st May – Lyth Art Centre, Wick

4^th May – An Lanntair, Stornaway

5^th May – Balivanich Community Hall, Benbecula

6th May – Braes Community Hall, Skye

19^th May – Harbour Arts, Irvine

20^th May – The Beacon, Greenock

23rd May – Catstrand, New Galloway

24th May – Moffat Town Hall

4th June – St. Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh

6^th June – Gardyne Theatre, Broughty Ferry

7^th June – The Byre, St. Andrews

6^th July – The Barn, Banchory

Ticket sales will also be available through our Linktree site as they become available.

It’s all a bit daunting. A year ago we were still working out how to stage our premiere show at the marvellous Glenbuchat Hall, in mid-winter and amidst the COVID emergency. Today we’re planning to do it again : 17 times!

And our tour programming explicitly aims to bring the show to places and communities affected by the Piper Alpha Disaster and the Climate Emergency. The post-industrial and remote island communities from which so many of the offshore workforce was drawn – many of which now face bearing the brunt of Climate Change and Climate Transition. If your community would be interested in hosting one of the few remaining slots, please get in touch. Under the terms of the touring fund, the costs to communities could be as low as venue hire for the event or less.

Frazer Fifield & I will also be offering additional creative writing and music workshops in parallel with the tour: exploring writing and music in the context of the Climate Emergency. If interested, again, please get in touch.

And, of course, copies of Pibroch – The Book are still available through this website or from its wonderful publisher at Red Squirrel Press.

Looking forward to seeing you seeing us sometime in 2023!

Pibroch Booklaunch – Orbs Bookshop, Huntly

Pibroch Book Launch – Scottish Poetry Library, Edinburgh

Pibroch book launch – Glasgow

From Eilean a’ Cheò to Innse Gall

November 19, 2021 Johnbolland Leave a comment

So here we are. About to start the production process for Pibroch – the Performance and eagerly awaiting a printer’s proof of Pibroch – the Collection. It has been a long, fascinating journey, summarised in part in the Developing Pibroch page of this site. The journey onwards, however, will be recorded here as an artist blog as we struggle with the meaning and articulation of Pibroch post-COP26.

From the outset, back in 2019, my focus had always been on launching both elements just before COP26 in Glasgow, an act of activism and engagement intended to raise awareness and, especially, encourage audiences to reflect on the meaning of Climate Justice and a ‘Just Transition’.

COVID-19, of course, intervened. COP26 slipped back a year and, as a consequence of cancer treatment during 2018, I was ‘locked down’ for most of 2020 as one of the ‘highly vulnerable’ in Scottish society. It was a year of frustration but also an opportunity to deepen my thinking and practice around the Pibroch project.

It was also a time of (virtual) engagement with other artists who acted as mentors, guides and supporters in developing the various elements of the project especially the performance, musical and audio-visual aspects.

Timelines slipped to the right, however, in the face of pandemic uncertainties (which still haunt us) and the nitty-gritty detail of any collaborative art. The latter element was much aggravated by my inexperience in the processes and economics of theatrical production.

Now, however, we are finally ready to begin the next stage of the journey with a great team onboard including

Mark Thomson, award winning director and former Artistic Director of the Royal Lyceum in Edinburgh,

Graeme Roger, an award-winning audio-visual designer from wildbird based in Moray,

Arthur Coates, a talented young multi-instrumentalist from Aberdeenshire

and the collective talents of Open Road, a creative, entrepreneurial organisation rooted in North East Scotland (‘the North’), but with a global vision. Opern Road uses arts, culture, heritage and the natural landscape to contribute towards health and wellbeing, tourism and environmental sustainability. .

Rehearsals for the show will be during January 2022 with a view to a premiere at Glenbuchat Hall in Strathdon on 15^th January 2022.

I am grateful to Creative Scotland and the National Lottery for funding to support the development of the performance elements of the Pibroch project and to Red Squirrel Press for their support in editing, collating and designing my second collection.

Wish us all luck!