Kirsty Findlay on starring in The Sound of Music at Pitlochry: 'it's a show that tells a huge story'
Kirsty Findlay tells Joyce McMillan about returning to the role of Maria in Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s new production of The Sound of Music
It was in the autumn of 2023 that Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s then artistic director, Elizabeth Newman, announced that the theatre would stage The Sound Of Music as its 2024 Christmas show; and at first, it seemed like a bold and even risky choice.
Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1959 classic is huge and challenging show, after all, set in Austria on the eve of the Nazi Anschluss of 1938, and featuring a deadly serious political context, big songs that demand near-operatic skills, and a storyline that requires a brilliant team of child actors and singers, to make it work.
Yet in the event, last year’s Pitlochry production scored a huge success, winning nightly standing ovations from delighted audiences; so much so that incoming artistic director Alan Cumming immediately decided to stage the show again this year. And right at the heart of that success stands the fragile yet indomitable figure of Kirsty Findlay, the young Scottish actress and singer who won the hearts of Pitlochry audiences in 2024 with a range of brilliant performances across the summer season, including a CATS award-winning role as singer and songwriter Carole King, in the tribute musical Beautiful.
It wasn’t until last autumn, though, that – after some initial doubts – she took up the challenge of playing Maria, the young would-be nun immortalised on screen by Julie Andrews. “We were working from the original stage script,” says Findlay, “and as I read it, I could see that this Maria was quite a remarkable character, with a very strong sense of freedom about her.
“She’s very present, very appreciative of nature, and of the nature of everything around her. So when she encounters these poor regimented von Trapp children, who seem to have no freedom at all, she just can’t help encouraging them to rebel – through music, and in other ways.”
Findlay grew up in Motherwell, with parents who played and sang in a band. Singing and performance have always been part of her life; and after school, she studied theatre and English literature at Napier University, a combination which she says worked brilliantly for her. “It gave me a real insight into text,” she says. “Because although I knew I could sing, I never wanted to be Kirsty the singer – that’s too exposing, for me. I like to sing as part of developing a character; and I’ve been lucky enough to have many chances to do that, in the ten years since I graduated.”
One of Findlay’s key early roles was in the brilliant National Theatre of Scotland ensemble show Our Ladies Of Perpetual Succour, a job which involved an international tour as well as a run in London. During the pandemic, she worked on the development of shows including the award-winning History Of Paper, and the acclaimed two-hander Islander, which had a successful off-Broadway run in New York.
She also worked on Finn Anderson’s musical A Mother’s Song, now called Ballad Lines, and will appear early next year in its first run in London; and all this before a 2024 Pitlochry season which – under the theatre’s old ensemble system, now abandoned for the 2026 summer season – saw her play lead roles in Jane Austen’s Sense And Sensibility, and in Footloose the Musical, as well as in Beautiful.
For now, though, Findlay is simply delighted to be returning to The Sound of Music. “This is a show that tells a huge story, and takes us on a massive journey”, she says, “and I’m so happy to be involved again. Some people say its approach to the politics of the time is too simplistic, but I think it’s quite nuanced.
“You can see how ordinary people – like Liesl’s boyfriend Rolf – get drawn into the Nazi movement, while not being monsters themselves; and all of that is there, in the story and songs. That’s why The Sound of Music is recognised as once of the greatest music theatre texts ever written; and it’s wonderful be to able to share it with Pitlochry audiences again, this winter.”
The Sound of Music is at Pitlochry Festival Theatre until 21 December
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