Edinburgh's new festival chief gives top billing to local hero

The Perthshire-born actor Alan Cumming is returning to the Scottish stage for the first time in 17 years in the inaugural programme from the new head of the Edinburgh International Festival.

Jonathan Mills, an Australian composer who previously ran the Melbourne Festival, has announced that Cumming will star in a new adaptation of Euripides' The Bacchae by the award-winning Scottish playwright David Greig.

Although Cumming has long mixed theatre with film work, his last Scottish stage show was the farewell tour of the cult musical double act Victor and Barry. These Perrier award-nominated creations of Cumming and Forbes Masson, were amateur dramatic performers whose show consisted of reminiscences and song.

In The Bacchae, Cumming will play Dionysus, the hedonistic Greek god who, with his cult of female followers, exacts revenge on those who have failed to honour him as a deity.

The world premiere of the new version of the Greek tragedy is one of a number scrambled in the remarkably short time-frame of five months since Mills succeeded Brian McMaster, who had spent 15 years as festival director.

The Cologne Opera will present the world premiere of its production of Richard Strauss's Capriccio and there will be a 400th anniversary production of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, acknowledged as the first opera.

There will also be appearances by artists including Deborah Voigt, Andreas Scholl, Thomas Allen, Mariss Jansons, and the Tiger Lilies.

A special grant from the Scottish Arts Council and another from the Dunard philanthropic trust has cut the festival's deficit by £1m to £600,000. Asked how his programme differed from his predecessor's, Mr Mills said: "I think there's a lot more humour in it than in the last couple of years and a lot of fun to be had."

The festival begins a month after the Man-chester International Festival, which features Damon Albarn's opera and theatre from Johnny Vegas.