Doppler
Doppler returns for performances in the Explorers’ Garden at Pitlochry Festival Theatre before travelling to Norway, 11-12 September 2025.
The award-winning Grid Iron Theatre Company is pleased to announce details for a remount of its hugely successful outdoor, site-specific production of Doppler, an adaptation of the best-selling novel by Norwegian author Erlend Loe.
First performed to live audiences in 2021, the production returns for a limited run of preview performances from 11-12 September in the beautiful Explorers Garden at Pitlochry Festival Theatre before heading to Norway, the country where it is set.
I am a man of my time. A failed man of my time. Or just a man of a failed time. Depending on how you look at it.
Doppler had everything. He thought. Wife, two kids, 23 hour working week, time to ride his bicycle. Until the accident. Now he lives in the forest with an elk... Doppler is a funny and subversive fable about existence, consumerism and trying to live life in isolation when nobody will leave you alone.
Adapted and directed by Ben Harrison from the translation by Don Bartlett and Don Shaw, with dramaturgy by Eszter Marsalko, Doppler is produced by Judith Doherty with a cast that includes Keith Fleming, returning to the eponymous role with Grid Iron-regulars Sean Hay and Itxaso Moreno, and Nik Paget-Tomlinson who, in 2021, took over music and live foley from composer David A. Pollock. Puppet-maker Fergus Dunnet has been busy sprucing up his puppets for the show while set and costume designer Becky Minto and lighting designer Elle Taylor have been reworking their original designs for two stunning new locations.
Doppler was originally planned to be performed at Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2020 but had to pivot to a digital sharing in light of the Covid-19 related restrictions. With only a few days of outdoor filming achieved due to Storm Francis, the Company decided to instead produce a documentary film charting the story of the show and its production, ‘Doppler – The Story so Far’, which was released for free in March 2020 and watched by almost 10,000 people worldwide. You can watch the documentary on YouTube.
The company were relieved, therefore, to have such a well-received run at the following years’ Edinburgh Festival Fringe and are extremely excited to be bringing it back again with Pitlochry Festival Theatre supporting preview performances before the production heads to Norway at the invitation of Den kulturelle skolesekken (The Cultural School Bag).
The Cultural School Bag (DKS) has been part of the Norwegian government’s cultural policy since 2001 and is a national scheme that ensures that all schoolchildren in Norway experience professional art and culture every year.
Anne-Kristin Saether, Team Coordinator – Art & Cultural Development for DKS, Rogaland says:
“The Cultural Schoolbag in Rogaland are delighted to present Grid Iron Theatre Company and their production Doppler in our program for this schoolyear for Upper Secondary School. About 900 students between the ages of 15 – 19 are scheduled to see Doppler in a forest close to Øksnevad Secondary School. Doppler is one of the 23 productions that are selected to be in our program for the Cultural Schoolbag this year.”
You can find more information about program for The Cultural Schoolbag in Rogaland here
You can find more information about the Cultural Schoolbag here
This is the first time Grid Iron have performed at Pitlochry Festival Theatre and their second time in Norway, following their commission to create Tryst as part of Stavanger 2008 European Capital of Culture.
Doppler will preview in the Explorers Gardens at Pitlochry Festival Theatre from 11-12 September. Tickets for the preview performances are limited and are available from pitlochryfestivaltheatre.com
Photo credit: Duncan McGlynn
