Mrs Puntila and Her Man Matti

Brecht’s classic master and servant comedy is given a gender-switched adaptation by Denise Mina, award-winning crime novelist and playwright (The Detective Alex Morrow, Garnethill, and Paddy Meehan series, a graphic novel adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy books).

When sober, landowner Mrs Puntila is a ruthless and avaricious capitalist overlord, but the minute drink is taken she becomes a kind and generous benefactor. Her shrewd chauffeur Matti spends his time extricating her from drunken mishaps while wooing her wayward daughter Eva, a match which will only be possible if Mrs Puntila can get over the class divide.

The role of Mrs Puntila will be played by Glasgow-born Elaine C. Smith, one of Scotland’s most loved and well-known performers. With a career spanning more than 30 years in theatre, television and film, her leading roles in BBC sitcoms Two Doors Down (for which she won a Scottish BAFTA for Best Actress), City Lights and Rab C. Nesbitt have become iconic – alongside decades of headline pantomime roles. Her theatre career began with political theatre companies 7:84 and Wildcat and has included productions at the Lyceum, and Tron as well as award-winning UK tours of Calendar Girls and the Susan Boyle musical I Dreamed a Dream, which she co-wrote with Alan McHugh.

DOT Theatre’s Murat Daltaban returns to direct this entertaining class-conscious comedy after his barn-storming production of Rhinoceros sold out at the Edinburgh International Festival in 2017.

Mrs Puntila and Her Man Matti will be presented at Tramway whilst the Citizens Theatre building undergoes an exciting redevelopment.