When Mountains Meet – Touring Theatre

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When Mountains Meet – Touring Theatre

When Mountains Meet tours Scotland this Spring

At Cottiers, Hyndland Street, Glasgow G11 21 and 22 May, 2024

Tickets for Cottiers

Scottish Tour Dates and Information

The captivating cross-cultural tale tells the true story of Scottish musician Anne Wood as she travels from the Highlands to the Himalayas to meet her father for the first time

Featuring an international cast of storytellers and musicians, the show features a vibrant live score combining alap, raag, reel and strathspey, as well as English, Gaelic and Hindustani vocals

The When Mountains Meet album also released

**** ‘The best kind of touring theatre – approachable, intelligent, melodic and utterly entertaining.’ All Edinburgh Theatre **** ‘A genuine immersive experience… remarkable’ The Herald **** ‘A thought-provoking, foot-tapping gem’ Bouquets & Brickbats

Renowned Scottish violinist Anne Wood (The Raincoats, Katheryn Tickell, Savourna Stevenson, Feis Rois, Deacon Blue, Michael Marra) tells the incredible story of her journey from the Highlands to the Himalayas to meet her father for the first time in When Mountains Meet.

“My mother is Scottish. My father was Pakistani. In my early twenties I found the father I’d never met … but I was taboo in a culture to which I longed to belong.”

Anne grew up in Scourie, Sutherland and Edinburgh in the 1970s, the only child of a single mother who never knew her Pakistani father. In her early twenties she found the father she had never met (and who had no idea that she existed), visited Karachi and experienced generous hospitality and cultural riches. She also discovered that being a professional musician and an illegitimate woman accorded her little status in Pakistan.

Through story, song, original music and immersion in the food, textiles and geography that define cultures, When Mountains Meet explores contemporary Scottish/Pakistani identity.

Conceived by Anne as a conversation between Scottish and South-Asian music, the show features a vibrant live score combining alap, raag, reel and strathspey, as well as English, Gaelic and Hindustani vocals.

More like being invited to a party or a wedding than a traditional theatre show, When Mountains Meet draws on the tradition of generous Pakistani and Scottish hospitality, enveloping the audience in a warm, intimate, almost village-hall style friendliness.

Featuring new music composed by Anne, the show is co-directed by Kath Burlinson (Mairi Campbell: Pulse and Auld Lang Syne) and Niloo-Far Khan (Play, Pie, Pint; Grid Iron/EIF; NTS) with Mary MacMaster (The Poozies) on harp, Rick Wilson on percussion and Rakae Jamil on sitar. The cast of storytellers is Iman Aktar (The Great Muslim Panto, Play, Pie, Pint), Hassan Javed (The Great Muslim Panto, Play, Pie, Pint) and Jamie Zubari (In The Weeds, Mull Theatre).

“When Mountains Meet grew out of my wish to share the incredible journey I had getting to know my Dad and his country after I traced him when I was in my 20s.” says Anne. “He didn’t know I had been born but replied quickly to my tentative letter introducing myself, completely accepting me into his life as we developed a fiery but loving father-daughter relationship.

.Over the past thirty years there were physical journeys between Scotland to Pakistan but also powerful emotional journeys on both sides, sometimes deeply challenging and uncomfortable but which resulted with connection and a sense of belonging, and ultimately with an ongoing connection with my half-brothers.

The show’s inspiration came from my search for identity, belonging and connection with a land very different to my own, and a father I had never met but who never felt like a stranger.

It draws from my own connection to two diverse wild mountain landscapes – where my grandparents lived (and where I played as an only child) in north west Sutherland and the mountainous regions in Northern Pakistan, where I yearned to visit whilst living in Karachi.

Over thirty years later I felt ready to share this story and with co-director Kath Burlinson, gathered a wonderful team. We had my journals from my first trip to Pakistan that gave us a rich source material from my perspective.

One of my father’s sons, my half-brother, generously provided us with the perspective from the family’s side, enabling us to offer different sides to the story. His input developed as we made the show, allowing me to gain a deeper and richer insight into my own story.

I have gathered the band of my dreams to play the music I composed for the show – outstanding musicians from Pakistan and Scotland, India and the UK.”

When Mountains Meet is produced by The Authentic Artist Collective and KT Producing. The When Mountains Meet album is available on CD and digitally.