The World premiere of a new play by Peter Arnott, commissioned by Mull Theatre, will take place at Mull Little Theatre, Dervaig, Isle of Mull on Thursday 21 July 2005.

CYPRUS IS PETER ARNOTT’S REACTION TO THE WAR WITH IRAQ: “It would be both pretentious and fraudulent to claim I know what was going through Tony Blair's head when he made the decision to follow the US into their act of military therapy in Iraq in March of 2002. When Alasdair McCrone [Mull Theatre’s Artistic Director] offered me the opportunity to air a little rage and frustration in the Little Theatre on Mull, I thought it might be interesting to do so from an entirely different perspective, opposite to my own in many ways.

“It became clear from the leaking and the whispering - and the timing of those leaks and whispers - that the atmosphere among the spooks and mandarins to this late colonial adventure was far from complacent. Long traditions of secrecy, in themselves profoundly anti-democratic, have been abused and possibly fatally undermined in the course of this privatised, phoney little war. Our court systems are by-passed as pious Labour ministers use evidence from torture victims to intern people without trial, all the while denouncing the abuse of human rights in Zimbabwe. It has gone beyond satire. Even Rory Bremner seems weary.

“Hence Cyprus: an ongoing attempt to keep track of events on the one hand, but on the other, a somewhat conventional country house "mystery stranger in the sheepfold" kind of a play, whose characters, I'd like to believe, have very little in common with their creator beyond a visceral contempt for wilful stupidity, and deep resentment at being taken for a ride.”

THE PLAY CONNECTS THE ISLANDS OF MULL AND CYPRUS, via a tangled route through Oman, Afghanistan and Iraq. The three characters meet up on Mull: “Colonel" Brian Traquair is a man with a secretive past and an ambiguous present. The Queen once gave him a medal in the kitchen at Buckingham Palace. He's supposed to be retired. But he still gets summoned to Whitehall every so often to share his hard -won expertise. His troubled daughter Alison waits for him in his remote home. But Traquair comes back with company, a figure from both their pasts, a ghost from those sunny days on Cyprus. Michael Griffen, Traquair's old protégé, brings back the darkness of the outside world. Foreign and domestic wars, old and new, walk through the door with him. Terrorism and intrigue, corruption and covert action, have come home.

SINCE HIS DEBUT AS A PROFESSIONAL PLAYWRIGHT in 1985 (The Boxer Benny Lynch, White Rose and Elias Sawney ), Peter Arnott has been “battering away” - mostly in Scottish Theatre - and The Breathing House won the TMA Award for best new British play of 2003. Most recently, his trilogy of classic adaptations for the Citizens Theatre's multi-national community company have had great acclaim. Cyprus is his first play specially written for Mull Theatre, and represents his official debut as a theatre director.

Cyprus will be performed at Mull Little Theatre, Dervaig, Isle of Mull on the following dates: Thurs 21 July,
Fri 22 July, Mon 25 July, Tue 26 July, Thu 28 July , Fri 29 July, Mon 1 August, Tue 2 August, Thu 4 August,
Fri 5 August, Tue 9 August, Thu 11 August, Fri 12 August, Sun 14 August, Mon 15 August, Tue 16 August and
Wed 17 August. All shows start at 20.00hrs and tickets are £10/£8. For more information telephone 01688 302828 or visit www.mulltheatre.com