Alan Bissett

Having crossed Scotland this year in my high-heeled boots, as ‘Falkirk’s hardest woman’ Moira Bell, I’ll be taking my shows The Moira Monologues and More Moira Monologues ever-further afield this Autumn.  Here are the tour dates, folks!

Thurs  27^th Sept (1pm) Moira Monologues & (7pm) Moira Monologues + More Moira Monologues. Findhorn Bay Arts Festival, Moray.

Sun 7th Oct (8pm) Moira Monologues, Behind the Wall, Falkirk.

Thurs 8th Nov (8pm) More Moira Monologues, Drouthy Cobbler, Elgin, Moray.

Fri 9th Nov (7.30pm) Moira Monologues, Deveronside Social Club, Banff, Aberdeenshire  *charity performance for CLAPA – Cleft Lip and Palate Assoc*

Wed 14th Nov (8pm) Moira Monologues + More Moira Monologues, Eden Court, Inverness.

Thurs 15th Nov (7.30pm) More Moira Monologues, Howden Park, Livingston.

A.x

Having already bagged a Fringe First, I’m touring both my ‘one woman shows’ The Moira Monologues and (More) Moira Monologues up in the North of Scotland over the summer, building up to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August…

Fri 6th July (7:30pm) – Garioch Theatre Festival, Inverurie**

Tues 10th July (7.30pm) Taigh Chearsabhagh, North Uist*

Wed 11th July (7.30pm) The Stables at Armadale Castle, Skye*

Sat 14th July (8pm) An Lanntair, Stornoway, Lewis**

1st-11th August (6.30pm and 8pm) Scottish Storytelling Centre, Edinburgh Fringe**

*The Moira Monologues only         **Double-bill

A.x

Hiya folks!

The Moira Monologues double-bill tour has been winding its way through Scotland (and a wee bit of England) for the last two months – to raucous audiences – and new dates all over the place are being arranged right up to the Edinburgh Fringe in August. I’ll be announcing the July dates further down the line, but in the meantime here’s everything up to and including June.

Alan Bissett as Moira Bell. She disnae gie a f**k.

Sat 19^th May (7.30pm) – Burgh Hall, Dunoon

Thurs 31^st May (7.30pm) – Catstrand, New Galloway, Dumfries & Galloway Arts Festival*

Fri 1^st June (7.30pm) – Thomas Tosh, Thornhill, Dumfries & Galloway Arts Festival*

Tues 12th June (7:30pm) – Kennedy Hall, Dunure (Ayr)**

Thurs 14th June (7:30pm) – Community Centre, Ballantrae**

Fri 15th June (7:30pm) – Village Hall, Fairlie**

Sat 16th June (7:30pm) – The Quay Zone, Girvan**

Sun 17th  June (7:30pm) – Village Community Centre, Barr (Girvan)**

Thurs 21st June (7:30pm) – Community Centre, Dalmellington (Ayr)**

*More Moira Monologues only             **The Moira Monologues only

See yese there!

A.x

Well, my latest play (More) Moira Monologues went just about as well as could be expected at the Edinburgh Fringe 2017. Big, loud audiences, a prestigious Fringe First award, and check out some of these goddamn reviews:

“Near-perfect.” – 5***** The Scotsman “A riot.” 5***** The National “Welcome back, Moira. We missed you.” – 5***** Broadway Baby “No wonder Moira has such a loyal following.” – 4**** The List

photo: Stephanie Gibson

Expect a double-bill of Moira 1 & 2 touring in Spring 2018, folks…

Before then, however, I’ve plenty of live dates lined-up, so come along and catch me at one of the following:

2nd Sept: Electric Fields festival (2.20pm) Neu Reekie! Spoken Word tent *ALAN BISSETT: STAND-UP LITERATURE

9th Sept: Outwith Festival, Dunfermline (12.30pm) The Canmore. *ALAN BISSETT: STAND-UP LITERATURE

16th Sept: Nairn Arts & Book Festival, Nairn (9pm) The Little Theatre. *THE MOIRA MONOLOGUES

24th Sept: Falkirk Storytelling Festival, Falkirk (7.30pm) Behind the Wall. *(MORE) MOIRA MONOLOGUES

5th & 7th Oct: The Ching Room, Edinburgh (7.30pm)  Assembly Roxy. A new production from Attune Theatre of my debut play from 2009. I’m not in it, in case you’re wondering.

13th Oct: (Iain) Banks Supper, Paisley (7.30pm) New Street, Paisley. *A TRIBUTE TO IAIN BANKS, which I have curated and am hosting.

16th Nov: Pentlands Book Festival, Edinburgh (7.30pm), Tanners Pub, Juniper Green. *(MORE) MOIRA MONOLOGUES. Tickets free, but donations on the night helpful.

Dates for later in the year to be released in November.

Hopefully see some of yese on the road!

I first wrote and performed my ‘one-woman show’ The Moira Monologues in 2009, my comedy about Falkirk’s hardest woman – directed by Sacha Kyle – and since then, against all our expectations, it proved to be my most popular show, and Moira my most enduring character. She’s strutted her stuff onstages across the length and breadth of Scotland and beyond.  Last year I brought her back to the Edinburgh Fringe for a sell-out run, which brought back to me how much I love the character and how well audiences respond to her.

But the show is eight years old, and the world’s become a very different place since then. Where is Moira in her life? I wondered. What’s she doing? Who is she doing?  And just what does she make of the post-indyref, post-Brexit, post-Trump situation?

Well, now I know.  Ohhhhhhh, she’s nailed it.

(MORE) MOIRA MONOLOGUES debuts at the Edinburgh Fringe from 2nd-28th August

And no: you don’t have to have seen the original.  I’ve written it in such a way that Moira will still make sense to you if even if you’ve met her before. But there are lost of lovely Easter Eggs for you if you have.

(MORE) MOIRA MONOLOGUES

Written and performed by Alan Bissett, directed by Sacha Kyle

7pm (1hr), Scottish Storytelling Centre, High Street, Edinburgh.

2nd-28th August

Buy tickets here or here.

See ya there! x

Some performances upcoming of my original (dare I say ‘classic’) ‘one-woman show’ Moira Monologues, the first in Stirling as part of the Off the Page book festival on May 5th, then three performances as part of the Dumfries and Galloway Arts Festival: at the Catstrand on June 3rd (4pm) in New Galloway, at the Usual Place in Dumfries on June 4th (3pm), and at A’ the Airts in Sanquar also on June 4th (8pm).

These will be the last chances to catch Moira in her first incarnation before the debut of the long-awaited sequel (More) Moira Monologues at the Edinburgh Fringe this year, in the Scottish Storytelling Centre, directed again by my regular collaborator Sacha Kyle. Tickets for it will go onsale in early June. SO EXCITED FOR THIS!

Some other appearances: I’ll be hosting the book launch of the excellent new novel Stronger than Skin from Stephen May on the evening of May 4th at the Golden Hare bookshop in Edinburgh.  On May 9th I’ll be doing a reading in the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh celebrating ten years of the online magazine From Glasgow to Saturn (7pm). On May 18th I’ll be performing a free event for an hour or so in Inverurie Library, in Aberdeenshire, as part of Mental Health May.

And seeing as we’re warming up to another Scottish independence referendum (they have a mandate, folks) I’ll be giving it some of that “we need to get out of the UK before it sinks beneath the waves and/or the Tories starting sending kids to work back up chimneys” patter in a speech at the Corbie Inn, Bo’ness, near Falkirk on Apr 26th at 7pm for Yes Bo’ness.

That’s enough for yese aw to be gettin on wi the noo.

A.x