// BBC UK NEWS — CRONACA
Acting pals Cumming and Henderson put 40-year friendship onto paper
Alan Cumming and Shirley Henderson's acting relationship goes back a long way and they've been reunited on stage once more at Pitlochry
Alan Cumming and Shirley Henderson first met as young actors on the STV drama Shadow of the Stone.
Henderson, who would go on to appear in the Harry Potter and Bridget Jones franchises, was 20 and had just left drama school.
Cumming, at 21, already had a few roles under his belt.
"I thought I was such a sophisticated older man," he said.
"I had a mortgage. I was married. And yet when I look back now, I see I was just a child."
The pair first met as fresh-faced actors on the TV drama Shadow of the Stone
That connection to their younger selves is something they channel in their first stage appearance together at Pitlochry Festival Theatre, where Cumming is now artistic director.
The History of Paper began life as a radio play in 2017 with words by Oliver Emanuel and music by Gareth Williams, who then turned it into an acclaimed musical at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2024.
The tender tale of a couple who tell their story through the various bits of paper they accumulate became even more emotional following the death of Oliver in 2023.