The History of Paper - Pitlochry Festival Theatre ★★★★★

“It’s thin and flimsy and easy to tear.”

Paper is an unlikely place to keep a life, yet, for all of us, scraps of it can hold a surprising amount of memory. Letters, postcards, some used plane tickets, even a Pizza Express menu. They can instantly transport us back to a person, a place or a moment that perhaps we otherwise might have forgotten.

Written by the late Oliver Emanuel with music by Gareth Williams, A History of Paper is a tender musical about a man (“He”), a woman (“She”) and their love for each other. First staged at the Traverse Theatre during the 2024 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where it won a Fringe First, it now arrives at Pitlochry Festival Theatre in a new production directed by Andrew Panton and starring Alan Cumming and Shirley Henderson.

He and She have been neighbours for five years without knowing each other. Following a split with his girlfriend, he does what every man does: wallow in Radiohead at too high a volume. Their story begins when She slips a postcard through his letterbox at midnight, saying “Hello Number 4. Please could you shut the fuck up? Your music is doing my bloody head in. Cheers. Number 4.” He apologises with an origami rose. And so their paper trail begins.

The way their love grows is beguiling. Together they are funny, sweet, believable, and most of all human. He is delighted to have found her. So is She though she doesn’t let on at first. As they go on their awkward first date, build a Chinese lantern on the beach on New Year’s Eve of the Millennium, and collect the confetti of their wedding in a jar, it manages to stay just the right side of sentimental and always utterly charming. Cumming offers a goofy adorability. Henderson zings with dry humour and playful affection. The pair parlay their forty-year real-life friendship into He and She’s courtship, lending it an ease and an entirely lived-in feel. When Cumming and Henderson sing together these gorgeous, gentle songs, their harmonies are blissful. Designer Ana Inés Jabares-Pita further enhances their romance with some simple but stunningly evocative moments. Make no mistake: The History of Paper will drag an “ahhh” from the flintiest hearts.

And as you wallow in the joyousness of the romantic comedy, the thought that this is too good to last may pop into your head. Then you may wonder why this is a memory play. It may even puzzle you why the set is made of huge, broken concrete slabs…

When the turning point arrives, it lands like a body blow. You are so invested in Cumming and Henderson as a couple, it’s truly heartbreaking. As the musical pivots from love to loss, what is depicted is as raw and affecting a portrayal of grief within a musical as this reviewer can recall. And the romantic comedy gives way to some serious questions about how to cope with a life cut short, remembering and forgetting. The sheer range of emotions contained in this work is phenomenal. That it holds together so well and flows so effortlessly from one to the other is a tribute to the wonderful writing, director Andrew Panton’s immaculate pacing and two exquisite central performances from the leads.

The History of Paper is both passionate and impassioned. It is devastatingly effective. But beware: a heart is rather like paper. “It’s thin and flimsy and easy to tear.”

Fragile as paper, enduring as memory. The paper you will need is a tissue. ★★★★★ 5 stars

Tickets for A History of Paper

The History of Paper runs at the Pitlochry Festival Theatre until 12 September 2026 and will then transfer to Dundee Rep Theatre from 16 - 19 September 2026

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