Here comes the sun... and DunsPlayFest!

Cerce Millar sings at the Opening party

With three-and-a-bit weeks to go until curtain-up on DunsPlayFest ’25, things are hotting up, feverish preparations are in train and the DPF team is excited. And, looking around the glorious Berwickshire countryside and peering into countless lovingly-tended gardens, it could seem that the flowers and the trees and the hedgerows are all sharing in our excitement.

We like having our festival at the beginning of May and not just because the May Bank Holiday sits perfectly with one of our ever-popular Family Days. April might not be “the cruellest month”, as TS Eliot put it – what did he mean by that? – but it is surely the month most a-quiver with anticipation. Everything is getting ready, poised, like us, and even the sudden cold winds, when they come, mirror our understandable apprehension as the time of our Opening Party on Friday 2nd May draws ever closer. Of course we are a wee bit nervous! With more than 90 events in preparation there is a lot to think about.

However, guided and inspired by our phenomenal producer, the incomparable Sara Best, things are looking good. Our brilliant tech team is primed and ready for action, with the support of interns whose efficiency and good humour made such a difference last year. The publicity machine has roared into action and is busy ensuring that everyone who should know, knows. Our volunteers, on whom we rely absolutely, are up for it, equal to the task of providing those essential elements of DunsPlayFest, smooth running and the warmest of welcomes. And menus are being decided, with this year the hot food being provided by a series of excellent caterers parked outside the Volunteer Hall which will, of course, be fabulously adorned. (Is the gang prepared to put up the frontage which transforms the entrance to the hall? Yes!)

Meanwhile, in countless unglamorous locations – upstairs rooms in pubs, deserted community halls, people’s sitting-rooms – rehearsals are happening. We are thrilled by the quality of this year’s line-up and deeply moved to know that artists of such calibre - Firebrand, Hot Trod, Northumberland Theatre Company, Tideline Runners, Treading the Borders, Maria MacDonell, Pauline Lynch and Wendy Barrett, for example - will be now doing everything they can to put on the best possible show. 

Edinburgh based emerging artists Shark Bait bring ther new show 'Tartan Tat'

We have forged a strong link with the vibrant community of early-career Edinburgh companies and no fewer than seven will feature this year including Out of Order Productions and SlashHouse Theatre which both include among their actors past winners of the Hugo Prize, Archie Beattie and Amy Kenneally respectively.

The Hugo Prize is given every year to a current or recent Berwickshire High School student looking to make a career in the performing arts and demonstrates, we hope, our commitment to the community and passion for fostering the passion of the young; we are delighted to see these past winners - now graduated, out there and at it – return to Duns with edgy, professional work.

 While our professional line-up goes from strength to strength, the contribution from the community theatre sector is by no means cowed. Indeed, Duns Players (whose vision and ambition got the festival going in the first place) will be contributing no fewer than eight productions this year, which is a fairly astonishing number considering the size of the place. And one suspects that the quality as well as the quantity will have audiences amazed. We have no prejudice against non-professional work which is often quite capable of outshining that of the seasoned pro: theatre is theatre.

Each year DDAOS give powerful, rousing performances

Brand-new theatre is the heart of the festival but we are also delighted to welcome story-tellers, film-makers, workshop-leaders, cabaret artistes, poets, magicians, comedians and, of course, musicians into our capacious tent. Duns & District Amateur Opera Society, fresh from their triumphant Musical Memories show, will be giving the musical lead with a late-night cabaret on Saturday 3rd May. Festival favourites, Rory McLeod, Antic Hay and Katie Forbes will be among many appearing through the week while the Closing Ceilidh will be led by the excellent new folk ensemble Sitka with Duns stars Fire in the Middle bringing proceedings to a close.

But that evening, Saturday 10th May, is almost unimaginable! There is so much still to do, not least our two preview nights (Wed 16th April in Longformacus, Wed 23rd April in Gavinton) when we will be staging mini-DunsPlayFest evenings, with a pie included in the ticket price, as we seek to spread the festival spirit around the area and sound the alert – DunsPlayFest is coming! And the trees, they know it too.