A FORMER Wee County man is taking his latest project to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe — a story that promises to have audiences thinking long after the curtains close.

Bruce Guthrie (34) is co-directing Man to Man – a new adaptation of Manfred Karge’s Jackie Wie Hose by Alexandra Wood – with Scott Graham and it is due to hit the capital next month.

He told the Advertiser: “Man to Man is a modern fairy tale inspired by the traditions of German storytelling. It is the life story of a woman called Ella who has to assume the role of her husband following his death in order to survive, both emotionally and physically to meet the challenges of life.

“Incredibly this is based on a true story. She lives in 20th century Germany and the play gives us an incredible view of what life was like and a social history of the century including the radical changes of the Nazi’s rise to power, the Cold War and the Berlin Wall coming down.

“This new adaptation is by George Divine winning playwright Alexandra Wood. She has brought her own unique style to the piece while absolutely serving the German original.

“A literal translation was done from which Alexandra created her version of the play. It takes tremendous skill to do this and she has done a beautiful job – much to Manfred Karge’s delight.” Bruce, who is currently artistic director of the National Youth Theatre of Wales, grew up in Sauchie and attended Craigbank Primary School followed by Lornshill Academy.

He got a real taste for the industry at the age of nine, when his mum took him to the Edinburgh Playhouse to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicoloured Dreamcoat.

After that, he was hooked.

He added: “That passion led to performing at school and with Forefront Stage School. I am very lucky to have such supportive parents. I was also incredibly fortunate to grow up in a place where I had the opportunity to learn from others who had gone to London and had success before me.

“Forefront was vital to my getting into drama school. This county punches well above its weight when it comes to talent and people who are successfully pursuing careers in the arts; Steven Miller, Gregor Scott, Stuart Maciver, Gillian Parkhouse to name a few are all enjoying success on stage and screen.

“I love hearing that people who I was at Forefront and school with are doing well in whatever career they have chosen to pursue.” Man to Man was produced by Wales Millennium Centre and it opened in March of this year.

It was in Cardiff as part of the Women in the World festival celebrations in recognition of International Women’s Day and it has received five star reviews.

The play is also one of the most thrilling and challenging shows Bruce has directed to date.

He is proud of what the entire team has created – especially of Margaret Ann Bain who stars as Ella – and said it is a performance not to be missed.

It joins the many other highlights of his career.

He said: “I have worked at the National Theatre as an associate director where I directed John Lithgow (Third Rock from the Sun, Shrek) in his one man show at the National Theatre – which counts as two highlights!

“I was associate director to Howard Davies on shows where we worked with David Suchet and Zoe Wannamaker in All My Sons in the West End and Rory Kinnear, Michelle Dockery and Ciaran Hindes in Burnt By the Sun at the National Theatre.” He went on: “But the highlight must be being associate director on The Bridge Project. It was a year long world tour of Richard III starring two time Oscar winning actor Kevin Spacey and directed by Oscar winning director Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Skyfall and currently directing the new Bond film Spectre).

“We played at the Old Vic Theatre in London prior to taking the show around the world to places like Hong Kong, Spain, Australia, Singapore and New York to name a few, but it was when we played in Greece that I will look back on as the highlight of the tour.

“We performed for three nights in a sold out ancient Greek amphitheatre with near perfect acoustics outdoors. Sixteen thousand people per day came to see the show. It was phenomenal. There was a documentary made about the tour that is currently on Netflix called NOW:In the Wings on the World Stage.” Catch Man to Man from Wednesday 5 until Monday 31 August.

For more information and tickets visit www.underbellyedinburgh.co.uk/whats-on/man-to-man