Scots premiere for Lockerbie play

The play tells how people dealt with bereavement

A play inspired by unsung heroes of the Lockerbie air disaster is to be given its Scottish premiere in Dumfries.

Women of Lockerbie tells the story of volunteers who spent months washing and ironing the clothes of victims before they were returned to families.

It is a fictional story devised by New Jersey-based writer Deborah Brevoort.

She only heard about the Lockerbie laundry project 10 years after it happened but says it had a profound effect on her home country.

"The women of Lockerbie - they are almost holy to people here," she said. "It just had a profound impact.

I just hope and pray that the play is received with the spirit that I wrote it in Deborah Brevoort

"The few families that I have spoken to all credited the people of Lockerbie, the women and the laundry project in particular as being central to their ability to heal and live again.

"I approached this story with an incredible reverence and respect and admiration for the people of Lockerbie.

"I just hope and pray that the play is received with the spirit that I wrote it in."

Americans drew strength from Lockerbie's response to the disaster

Two of the cast live in Lockerbie - including Andy Morton who plays an American father whose son died there.

"Having been there in Lockerbie on the night of the disaster it was something I felt I wanted to do," he explained.

"What has been quite striking, though, is the play is not a history of what happened on the night of the disaster or indeed what happened later.

"It is a story about how people deal with bereavement and come to terms with loss using what happened in Lockerbie as a kind of springboard - as an inspiration."

The Women of Lockerbie is on nightly from Tuesday until 24 June at the Theatre Royal in Dumfries.