A BEER, A BAP AND A BOFFIN Comes to Pitlochry Festival Theatre

This week Pitlochry Festival Theatre, in collaboration with the Royal Society of Edinburgh, is set to host A Beer, A Bap and A Boffin, a brand-new series of talks featuring leading Scottish experts from the sciences, arts and business communities. 

A Beer, A Bap and A Boffin will open on Saturday 14 June, in Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s outdoor Amphitheatre, with the novelist and poet James Robertson FRSE who will host What’s next for Libraries, Literature and Creativity?, a discussion on the historical and present role of libraries in our society, which asks how that role might change in the years ahead. He will look at how culture, and literature in particular, both shape and are shaped by the state of the library sector, what impact Artificial Intelligence (AI) will have on library services and content, on literary creativity, and on protecting authors’ copyright. The talk will also include short readings from James’ own work. 

Further talks will take place later in the summer on Saturday 2 August when David Field FRSE, the Chief Executive Officer of the Royal Zoological Society Scotland, will present How to train your wildcat, which will uncover the techniques used to prepare zoo-bred wildcats for life in the wild, and how similar techniques are helping bring back other species, from pine hoverflies to lynx. He will also talk about what it takes to bring back Scotland’s lost species.  

This will be followed three weeks later, on Saturday 23 August, when Professor Niamh Nic Daeid, FRSE will present What is forensic science and why does it matter? a discussion on how science can be used to support criminal investigations and the importance of really understanding the questions that a scientific knowledge can answer. The talk will also discuss how the importance of having robust and transparent scientific underpinning of evidence presented in the Courts is critical, as well as the evaluation of that evidence in the context of a criminal case. 

The idea of A Beer, A Bap and A Boffin came from Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s Artistic Director Alan Cumming, who is a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and was inspired by the widely celebrated A Play, A Pie and A Pint.  

Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s Artistic Director, Alan Cumming said: 

“One of the many surprises at Pitlochry Festival Theatre is our Explorers Garden and I want to find as many reasons as possible for it to be enjoyed. That’s why I thought of A Beer, A Bap and A Boffin! As a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, I have watched many academics mesmerise with their knowledge and rediscovered how fascinating it can be to learn about topics you’d otherwise never encounter. So, I invited some of these Boffins to do lectures in our Explorers Garden amphitheatre, and with the addition of a wee drink and a bite to eat as they extrapolate, I don’t think there could be a better way to spend a summer’s day! Also, full disclosure this is both a steal and a homage to Oran Mor’s brilliant A Play, A Pie and A Pint!”  

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