The Scottish actor Alan Cumming made his name as the Emcee in Cabaret at the Donmar Warehouse in 1993 and is now an institution in entertainment on both sides of the Atlantic – he presented the American version of the BBC’s The Traitors. Yet at 61 he retains renegade credentials, speaking out on politics, performing adventurous work and appearing in Russell T Davies’s new Channel 4 series, Tip Toe. He is now braced for a bewilderingly hectic schedule of stage and screen work as artistic director of the Pitlochry theatre in Perthshire, launching its new season on 23 May.
Is your huge workload at the moment invigorating or overwhelming?
I have to be careful about my time and my energy. Luckily, I have a lot of help. I didn’t intend it to be like this, but I think the best things happen when you don’t really expect them. I’m embracing my fecundity. It’s an unusual mix of completely new challenges and old revisitings.
What grabbed you about the new musical, A History of Paper, that you will star in this August and September at Pitlochry alongside Shirley Henderson?
It’s a simple two-hander musical that I saw at the Edinburgh fringe two years ago while I was making Brian Cox’s film Glenrothan with Shirley. It is heartbreaking and beautiful, but I couldn’t work out why I stayed so obsessed with it. Then I realised that although the people who did it in Edinburgh were great, it needed older people, since it’s a memory piece. I first worked with Shirley 40 years ago and I love her sensibility and energy, so I thought: “This is the person who should be doing this with me. She’s standing right in front of me.”
You fly a lot, but you’re also a fan of the sleeper train to Scotland, I believe?
I love it. It’s romantic and really efficient. I used it a lot when I was shooting Tip Toe last year. I would arrive at Pitlochry at around 6am, then have this magical walk from the train station, through a little wood, over a bridge and across the river to the theatre. I was exhausted, but I always thought: “I can’t believe this is my life. This is my job. I run this theatre.” The presenter Kirsty Wark is queen of the sleeper train, of course, and apparently they held it for her a few times when Newsnight ran late. That’s a real accolade. I’m actually the opposite, because one time they forgot to stop at Pitlochry for me. I was standing chatting to the guard, and I said: “That was Pitlochry.” He ran off to the driver’s cabin. They’d forgotten, so they told me to get a taxi from the next station even though it was 6.30am. I got lots of free drinks the next time I was on, though.
You are an American citizen. How does that feel now?
I moved to New York in 1998, so I’ve lived there for nearly half my life. I went there with Cabaret and the city just opened his arms to me. It was an incredible thing. I’d lived in London before, where I had been slightly derided for being Scottish. I mean, it’s horrifying what’s happening in the US now, of course. People are terrified to speak out against this out-of-control man, [Donald] Trump. But I never really feel New York is America. It’s a weird island, floating off the coast.
Are you taking a risk when you attack the American regime?
Well, I don’t feel brave; I’m just speaking my truth. And since Zohran Mamdani has been mayor of New York, that has made such a difference to the spirit of the place. He’s done such amazing things in a short time. People can see there is another way and that Mamdani can stand up to Trump and yet he will still respect him. Miraculous.
Did the latest lineup for The Celebrity Traitors in the UK make you wish you were in it?
I’ve been through the game so many times now, hosting the American show, that I’ve seen the patterns. I’ve seen how people go absolutely nuts and irrational by about episode six or so. They go into this sort of Lord of the Flies, pack mentality and do really stupid things before they eventually come out of it and move on. There’s an element of psychological torture. So I’m fascinated to see whether I’d be able to avoid that, with my vast wisdom. I don’t think so, because the game is pretty fierce and all-encompassing.
Would the camp and gay content of the musical The High Life and Tip Toe, respectively, play well in America?
What I love about The High Life is that it has such a Scottish sense of humour in its DNA. There wouldn’t be an American equivalent. It’s kind of like a satirical panto. And in terms of Tip Toe, well, sadly, right now, no American company would put money into those shows, because everybody’s so terrified to be seen aligning with the principles of diversity and inclusion. They might acquire something like it later, of course, once it was a big hit, in the way that HBO acquired that gay hockey show, Heated Rivalry. It makes it harder for smaller storytellers to get things made because they’re not getting help at ground level.
You have a revival of the multi-award-winning musical Once opening on 23 May. Why else should people head to Pitlochry for this season?
One of the things I really wanted to do is to make sure that Scottish talent has a bigger reach and is celebrated. So we’re opening our studio season with the world premiere of a romantic play by the brilliant Douglas Maxwell, called Inexperience. And then in July, in the main house, we’re doing Lear with Maureen Beattie, this incredible Scottish actress. She’s the reason I became an actor, because when I was little, she was in a theatre and education company that came to my primary school and put on a play in our dinner hall. It blew my mind and changed my life. And now she’s playing a version of King Lear as a woman. It is going to be a huge, revelatory moment.
Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s Season 2026 runs from 23 May to 31 December. A History of Paper runs from 9 August to 2 September. For more information, visit pitlochryfestivaltheatre.com. Tip Toe will be on Channel 4 in May
Photograph by Chris Sorensen/Redux / eyevine
Styled by Cynthia Altoriso