Create a play with a plot device of The Beatles in Scotland in the Sixties, frame it with a story of a group of excited local fan girls teetering precariously on the edge of adult life - and it all sounds like a hit play, doesn’t it?

But here’s a little nagging question; why has Gabriel Quigley written There’s a Place with a Beatles backdrop, rewinding on the impact of the Fab Four’s appearance in Scotland in 1964? Now, Quigley is an actor of 30 years’ experience and has earned continual applause for her dramaturgical development of new scripts. And it’s fair to say the one-time star of The Karen Dunbar Show knows how to sell a laugh.

But The Beatles? A bit before your time, Gabe? “Well, yes,” she smiles. “But I was brought up in a house of Beatlemania. My three older sisters were Beatle-mad, and my mum was a huge Beatles fan, so much so that when John Lennon died, we found her sobbing over the kitchen sink - and my brother is called John Paul!”

She says: “So, when I was asked to come up with an idea for a play, I looked at my bookshelves and the three shelves of Beatles books, and I thought ‘I’m having them.’”

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But how to develop a play that referenced the Mop Top’s influence not just on the world, not just in Scotland but in Perthshire – and offer local context? “The Beatles had played Dundee, and they had stayed in Perth but the following year, in October 64 they stayed in Loch Earn in chalets, so they wouldn’t be found.”

Ah, but they were. Four Perthshire girls find out (via a tip off) and they camp out - and get to see their heroes, (from a distance). The ensuing conversations explore what it means to be a fan.

“I’m always struck by fans who idolise their pop idols and what they’ll do to show how much they love them,” says the writer. There is another layer to Quigley’s play in that her girls recognise these boys as having incredible power - yet they are working class, they speak in their own accent. “And there is something in the Beatles proximity that makes the girls, who are about to leave school, ask questions of themselves; what does the future hold for us? Where is the place for us? What were the options for women at the time, in terms of education if you were working class?”

Quigley’s voice softens as she adds; “The play was also inspired by my mother who had kinship to one of the characters. My mum was school dux, a really clever woman who became a nurse - when really, she should have been a doctor. This was at a time however when even if a woman made it to uni, if they married, they had to leave.”

The 60th anniversary play is a comedy, yet it deals with the serious social issues of the time, such as abortion being illegal.

Quigley’s play also touches on the Beatles’ Scottish connection. “John Lennon had an aunt in Edinburgh who’d married a Scottish dentist, and they lived near Murrayfield, and he’d come up and spend his summers in his aunt’s Highland croft. And in fact, my mother told us of being in the Grassmarket in 1964 and it coming to a standstill when John Lennon strolled along.”

There’s A Place features, Tinashe Warikandwa, Leah Byrne, Rosie Graham, Yana Harris and Elena RedmondThere’s A Place features, Tinashe Warikandwa, Leah Byrne, Rosie Graham, Yana Harris and Elena Redmond (Image: free)

The characters in the play, we discover, have nicknamed themselves after their favourite Beatle. The writer laughs. “We actually did this when I was at school. I was John (Taylor) from Duran Duran. And so in this play ‘Ringo’ is the girl who is part of the Traveller community, ‘George’ is the bookie’s daughter, who has lots of money, ‘John’ is a mixed race baby who has been adopted by Perthshire academics and ‘Paul’ is the good Catholic girl, highly intelligent who wonders about the options she will have in life.

For legal reasons, the play can’t feature original Beatles music, but it does feature some of the songs the band covered, thanks to a transistor tuned into Radio Luxembourg.

“On the one hand, I’d have loved to showcase Beatles songs, but then again, the play isn’t about them. It’s about how these girls reacted to them. It’s about their lives in 1964 in Scotland and the choices they have.”

What’s clear from conversation is that the writer, who stars in TV’s All Creatures Great and has chalked up a big hit with her adaptation of Muriel Spark’s A Girl of Slender Means was – and is – passionate about the Liverpudlian wonders, which will emerge via her characters. Quigley still retains the excitement she felt when she saw McCartney play live in 1989. “Their legacy, the music, their looks and their humour, well it doesn’t really go away, does it?”

There’s A Place features, Tinashe Warikandwa, Leah Byrne, Rosie Graham, Yana Harris and Elena Redmond, Perth Theatre, October 17 – November 2.

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