I couldn’t be happier with success of Winter Words Festival, says Alan Cumming

Actor Alan Cumming has said he “couldn’t be more happy” with the success of his first major event as artistic director at Pitlochry Festival Theatre.

The Perthshire-born star, who took up the role in January, was speaking after the conclusion of the 2025 Winter Words Festival on Sunday.

The 2025 edition of the annual celebration of Scottish writing featured some of the country’s leading authors, poets, broadcaster and chefs.

The line-up included Booker prize winner Douglas Stuart, celebrated crime writer Val McDermid, broadcaster Kirsty Wark and former Scots Makar Liz Lochhead.

The three-day festival also featured literary lunches with top food writers, runs with runner and author Chris Carse Wilson, yoga sessions with Finlay Wilson – and a DJ set by Alan Cumming himself.

Cumming, who turned 60 this year, said: “Winter Words Festival was my first curated programme of work as Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s artistic director and I couldn’t be more happy about how it went.

“It’s my dream come true to see our theatre so full of life and joy (and dancing), and also to celebrate so many great writers both well-known and emerging in such a positive and celebratory way.”

The multi-award-winning actor is currently programming the 2026 season at the 74-year-old theatre.

During an onstage Q&A event on Friday morning he said he was looking to stage pieces that he thought would be “magical” for the audience.

“I’m looking for things that I think would be magical to come and see,” he said.

“I really do believe the theatre is a place of magic, and it’s where imagination lets fly.”

Cumming, who is also the host of the US version of hit TV show The Traitors, which is filmed in Scotland, added: “I want theatricality, and I want magic, and I want us all to have a collective, beautiful, uplifting experience.”