Well-known Bellevue actor, writer and director Matthew Zajac will be busy this month with two shows running in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
First is a reprise of The Tailor of Inverness (Krawiec z Inverness), Zajac's highly acclaimed account of his father's tangled national and personal identities in war-ravaged Central Europe. First shown in 2008, when it won the Scotsman Fringe First, this one-man play – written and performed by Zajec – is moving and visually exciting, drawing universal themes from an individual's bewildering personal experience.
'I come from the Soviets and the Nazis. I come from a farm, from the forests and fields of green Ukraine, from the ruins of Germany, from the beaches of the Adriatic, from the grimy streets of Glasgow and the cool air of Inverness.'
Directed by Ben Harrison, Tailor will play at 1:55pm at the E4 Cow Barn, Underbelly's Pasture, Bristo Square until 30 August (no performance on 16 August). It then goes on tour around Scotland before autumn performances in the Ukraine, Germany and Poland.[img_assist|nid=991|title=|desc=|link=node|align=right|width=163|height=200]
Zajac's second venture – again for Inverness-based Dogstar Theatre – is as director of Jacobite Country (Dùthaich nan Seumasach), Henry Adam's eyebrow-raising and possibly eye-watering new comedy about 'fame, vanity and mental illness'. Expect also an unflinching comic assessment of the Highlands, drugs, and the Loch Ness Monster, not to mention 'live music and tremendous craic'.
Jacobite Country also plays at the E4 Cow Barn until 30 August, with performances at 3:50pm (except 16 August).
For tickets to both shows, contact: Tel. 0844 545 8252 or 226 0000.