THE TAILOR OF INVERNESS

The Tailor of Inverness is a story of journeys, of how a boy who grew up on a farm in Galicia (Eastern Poland, now Western Ukraine) came to be a tailor in Inverness. His life spanned most of the 20th century. His story is not straightforward. He was taken prisoner by the Soviets in 1939 and forced to work east of the Urals, then freed in an amnesty after the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. He then joined the thousands of Poles who travelled to Tehran, then Egypt, to be integrated into the British Army, fighting in North Africa and Italy. He was then resettled in Britain in 1948, joining his brother in Glasgow. This is the story he told.

Witness the Northern Ireland premiere of Matthew Zajac’s extraordinary multi-award-winning play about his Polish father, identity, forced migration and war. The Tailor of Inverness has toured across the world since its premiere at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2008.

Directed by Ben Harrison, with a haunting violin accompaniment from Jonny Hardie, the show has won numerous awards including a Scotsman Fringe First (2008), the 2008 Stage Best Solo Performer Award at the Edinburgh Fringe and the 2009 Best Actor Award from the Scottish Critics.