Adam, the multi-award-winning stage production inspired by the life of Adam Kashmiry has been reworked for screen and is now set to be broadcast on BBC Scotland in early March 2021.

Written by playwright and dramaturg Frances Poet and directed by Cora Bissett and Louise Lockwood, the new screen adaptation tells the remarkable story of a young trans man and his struggle across genders and borders to be himself. Adam has been reinvented and specially crafted as a compelling, theatrical on-screen drama.

As in the stage play, Adam Kashmiry will play himself and he will also be joined in this new hourlong TV version by actors Myriam Acharki, Yasmin Al-Khudhairi, Haqi Ali, Neshla Caplan, Stephen McCole, Rehanna MacDonald, and Hamish Wyllie.

 Adam was born in Egypt and was assigned female at birth but always knew he was a boy. Trapped, with no way to describe this feeling, in a deeply conservative society where falling in love with the wrong person can get you killed, he knew that he had to escape. With a borrowed laptop he typed in a question: ‘Can the soul of a man be trapped in the body of a woman?’ What followed was beyond Adam’s wildest dreams. A catalyst to begin the epic journey for the right to change his body, to the boy he knew himself to be.  

The drama focuses on Adam’s isolating experiences in a Glasgow flat while awaiting a decision on his asylum claim. Trapped in a Catch 22 where he cannot prove his need for asylum as a trans man until he transitions but is unable to start transitioning until he is granted asylum, Adam is left alone to wrestle with his conflicting thoughts and feelings as every waking moment sees him haunted by figures from his past and present.  

Jackie Wylie – Artistic Director said “Adam Kashmiry’s real life journey from Egypt to Glasgow and his journey of transition are at the heart of one of the most remarkable stories we have had the privilege of telling at the National Theatre of Scotland. In the sharing of his story, live on stage in 2017, Adam displayed the same courage and resolve, inspiring all those who saw it. I am thrilled that ADAM is now being told on screen in a beautifully crafted, made for TV, theatrical drama which will see his story reach new audiences. It has also afforded us the wonderful opportunity to work again with BBC Scotland, BBC Arts and Hopscotch Films who continue to demonstrate their enlightened support of Scottish theatrical talent whilst theatres remain closed.”

Louise Thornton, Head of Commissioning at BBC Scotland said:

“Adam is a fantastic play by National Theatre of Scotland that follows the remarkable story of a young trans man and his struggle across genders and borders to be himself. And it has been given a unique and beautiful reinterpretation in this new version of the play, which we hope will provide the audience with some aspects of a theatre performance alongside the closeness and intimacy that television can provide.

One of the main objectives of BBC Scotland and of the channel is to seek creative partnerships which allow us to give a platform to engaging content and bring it to a wider audience, this is a terrific example, which we hope the audience will see as a new kind of televisual experience.”   

The on-screen adaptation is produced by the National Theatre of Scotland and Hopscotch Films and commissioned by BBC Scotland and BBC Arts.

After its BBC Scotland TV premiere, Adam will be shown in the spring as part of the BBC Arts ‘Lights Up’ for New Culture in Quarantine Season as well as on BBC Four and BBC iPlayer.

Full creative team and more info here.