The Tailor of Inverness previewed at the Arches Theatre, Glasgow on July 29th & 30th 2008 and opened at the Assembly Rooms,  Edinburgh Festival Fringe on July 31st, running to August 24th.  Within days of opening, the show became a sell-out.  Within a week, it had won a prestigious  Scotsman Fringe First Award.  By the end of the festival, Matthew Zajac had won The Stage Award for Best Solo Performer at the Fringe and the show was invited to Australia, through winning the Holden St. Theatres Award.  The production toured Scotland from late January 2009, going on to Holden St. and the Adelaide Fringe Festival, Australia for four weeks.  A visit to the Skelleftea Storytelling Festival, Northern Sweden, and to Umea University took place in April 2009.  This was followed by a second Scottish tour.  In 2010, the production ran for a second time at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and toured to several Scottish venues before embarking on a tour to Eastern Europe, the origin of the play’s story. 

In Ukraine, we toured to beautiful Lviv and its Golden Lion Festival, to Lutsk, where 500 people attended over two performances and to the capital Kyiv.  In Poland, to the briliiant Konfrontacje Teatralne (Theatre Confrontations) Festival in Lublin and to Zielona Gora University. 

In Germany to Berlin’s English Theatre and Kiel’s Thespis Monodrama Festival where the show received possibly its longest curtain call ever !  In May 2011, we took the production to Dresden, Germany for the Szene:Schottland Festival at Societaetstheater.  The production had its US premiere at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst in January 2012, receiving a standing ovation during its week-long residency.  In 2013, the show toured again to Sweden, including a sell-out performance in the 400-seat Hipp at Malmo Stadsteater, to Denmark’s Mungo Park Arts Centre in Allerod, Copenhagen for three sold-out performances and to Arhus, to the Celtic Festival at Clwyd Teatr Cymru and throughout the Republic of Ireland with Richard Ryan Productions.  Later that year, further Scottish performances and a second tour of Ukraine took place.  A second tour of Ireland took place in 2014.  Most of the production’s 310 performances to date have been sold out.

This is a towering piece of work with a glorious performance by the author.”
Emer O’Kelly, Sunday Independent Ireland 2013

 “…prove(s) that theatre is indispensable as a meeting place, a guarantee of enchantment and of the human spirit. ” Pia Huss, Dagens Nyheter Sweden 2013

“In case it isn’t clear yet my advice is don’t miss it.  It’s the most satisfying seventy five minutes that I’ve spent in the theatre in a long time. “
Myk Mykyta, Radio Adelaide Arts Breakfast 2009

“…brilliantly encapsulates the effects of war on individuals, families and societies… As the truth becomes less and less certain, so the fracturing impact of the war grows more tangible, lending this touching personal story the grand metaphorical weight of 20th century history. All this and live fiddle too.”  Mark Fisher, The List 2008

“A must…Zajac is truly a visionary”  Broadway World, New York

“A gripping tale….a phenomenal violinist…the cognitive dissonance of the two narrators is fascinating, emphasizing the true trauma of living through a war.”  Charged FM, New York

“An ardent, deeply personal play…compelling, impassioned…a fine actor”  
New York Times

“Matthew Zajac, compellingly pieces together his father’s patchwork of truths and omissions, then methodically unravels it, in this taut odyssey that spans continents, decades, and even vaster zones of the heart still marked by war… Ben Harrison’s imaginatively muscular direction…”  Village Voice, New York

“I loved your play. It was just amazing. I wonder if you want to come to NY to perform.  This is the best play in the Fringe.” 
Michal Nachmany, New York

“One actor, one fiddler, one brilliant and moving piece of theatre.  Never spent $25 and 75 minutes so well.  See it, friends.” 
April Alliston, New York

“Yesterday I saw your play. It was excellent and very moving. It was your father’s personal story but it was also a story of every Polish family. My husband’s Granny (78years) saw also with me the play. She doesn’t speak English but she had tears in her eyes after the show .  I wish people in Poland could see your play too.” 
Joanna Jankowska, Edinburgh

“…how incredibly impressed I was by The Tailor of Inverness – not only was your performance extraordinarily assured and theatrical but it explored a whole range of vital issues about identity and uncertainty which is increasingly the heart of the modern experience. Beyond that, of course, it was unbelievably moving and unexpected even though dramatically you had set up the denouement with exceptional skill. I really hope that this makes it to the London stage.” 
Misha Glenny, London

“As good as it gets.” 
Duncan Bruce, New York

“I found it incredibly moving, thought provoking and interesting, wonderfully acted and produced, and it is something that will stay in my head for a long time.” 
Kate Boileau

“Last night my wife and I were at the Arches theatre in Glasgow – it was a truly memorable evening, seeing Matthew Zajac in The Tailor of Inverness. Please convey our congratulations to everyone who helped make this one of our best-ever theatre experiences. ” 
Henry Perfect, Glasgow

“It was truly the best piece of theatre I have ever seen.” 
Liz Bishop, Inverness

But there is another story, and perhaps a third and fourth one,for in order to survive, he had to adopt different identities………………………………

Like all immigrants, the tailor had to adapt and he did that very successfully, integrating himself into the fabric of Highland life.  And fabric was perhaps the most important medium through which he achieved this.  He made a variety of clothes for thousands of people, including himself, constructing the outward trappings which play a part in defining hwo we are.  Fabric.  Fabrication.

Crossing the borders from Poland to Russia to Iran to Egypt to Italy to Germany to Scotland, the fable reflects on the Second World War but is personal, intimate and rooted in two cultures:  Galicia and the Scottish Highlands.  The play uses the central metaphor of the tailor and his fabric.  Layers of ghostly clothes are projected on to with a series of still and moving images from the tailor’s past and present-day Ukraine.  The performance combines storytelling, songs, poetry and physicality with a rich soundscape of live fiddle music and effects.

I come from Gnilowoda.  I come from a tailoring school in Podhajce.  I come from the Eastern Front because when you are a tailor, they send you to be a soldier.  I come from the Soviets and the Nazis.  I come from a farm, from the forests and fields of green Ukraine. From the resettlement camps of Germany.  From the beaches of the Adriatic.  From the grimy streets of Glasgow.  And the cool air of Inverness.  Now I am here.  I am from here.  I speak the language of here.