We are delighted to be announcing the full creative team and cast for our production of Maggie & Me, Damian Barr’s award-winning memoir about growing up gay in Thatcher’s Britain which is coming to stages across the UK in May and June 2024.

Gary Lamont takes on the role of DB, with Sam Angell as Wee DB, Beth Marshall as Margaret Thatcher and Nicola Jo Cully, Grant McIntyre, Douglas Rankine, and Joanne Thomson playing the key people in Damian’s life.

Damian Barr is adapting his memoir for the stage, teaming up with Scottish playwright James Ley and directed by Suba Das.

This new production from National Theatre of Scotland premieres at the Tron Theatre, Glasgow in May 2024 before touring to Inverness, Perth, Cumbernauld, Dundee, Northampton and Edinburgh.

In Maggie & Me, Damian will come face to face with his past. DB will be played by Gary Lamont, who will be familiar to Scottish audiences from his role as Robbie Fraser in River City, and most recently seen in Boiling Point, both the Netflix film and BBC television continuation. Wee DB will be played by Sam Angell, who is making his National Theatre of Scotland debut. He started his career playing Billy Elliot in Stephen Daldry’s West End production in 2008.

Beth Marshall will be taking on the titular Maggie Thatcher, who finds herself pulled into Damian’s world. Recent stage credits include Fleg, The Spark, and Mary and Ada Set The World to Rights (A Play, a Pie and a Pint) and Mrs Puntilla and his Man Matti (Royal Lyceum Theatre), and television credits include Still Game, Shetland and River City. Last year, Beth worked with National Theatre of Scotland in Hannah Lavery’s radio play Finding Seaglass (co-prod with Almost Tangible for BBC Radio 4).

Both making their National Theatre of Scotland debut, Nicola Jo Cully will be playing Mum, and Douglas Rankine will be playing Dad. Nicola Jo Cully has appeared on screen in Doctors, Outlander, Waterloo Road, River City and Casualty. Stage credits include Welcome to Bannockburn (A Play, a Pie and a Pint) and Prism (Scottish Theatre Producers). Douglas Rankine is returning to Scottish stages for the first time since 2006, where he appeared in Faust (Royal Lyceum Theatre). His film credits include The Death & of John F. Donovan and Sunset Song, and television credits includes The Pigeon Tunnel (Apple TV+), Traces, Casualty, River City, Peaky Blinders and The Dumping Ground (BBC).

Completing the cast are Grant McIntyre as Mark and Joanne Thomson as Heather. Grant McIntyre’s recent stage credits include Scots (A Play, a Pie and a Pint), The Addams Family UK tour and Oor Wullie (Dundee Rep). Joanne Thomson is an actor, writer and director, She was nominated twice for Best Actress categories at the IARA Awards for her role in In Plain Sight (ITV) and will be familiar to audiences from her role in Outlander as Amy McCallum. Stage credits as an actress include The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart (Royal Exchange Manchester), and Twelfth Night (Bristol Old Vic, Royal Lyceum Theatre).

A creative team including Kenneth MacLeod, Set and Costume Designer (Dracula: Mina’s Reckoning for National Theatre of Scotland and Aberdeen Performing Arts, and Battery Park for Sleeping Warrior Theatre); Struan Leslie, Movement/Associate Director, (founding Head of Movement at the Royal Shakespeare Company) and Tim Reid, Video Designer (Quiz – Chichester Festival Theatre, 1984 - West End and Broadway and The Grand Old Opera House Hotel – Traverse Theatre) will create a kaleidoscope of memory spanning two decades, weaving in use of iconic 80s archive footage and live onstage camera work.

There will be a chance for audiences to hear more about bringing the memoir to the stage from Damian at two special events in Edinburgh and Motherwell, and from Damian and co-writer James together in Glasgow. More details about these events will be available soon.

The National Theatre of Scotland will be collaborating with film and video students from New College Lanarkshire to create a short documentary about the making of the production.

Full creative team: Co-writers - Damian Barr and James Ley, Director -Suba Das,

Set and Costume Design - Kenneth MacLeod, Lighting Design – Katharine Williams, Sound Designer – Susan Bear, Video Designer – Tim Reid, Movement Director/Associate Director – Struan Leslie, Casting Director – Orla O’Connor, Assistant Director – Matt McBrier.

Access providers: Integrated BSL interpreters Amy Cheskin & Sarah Forrester, Captioner - Alison Pendlowski, and Audio Describer - Emma-Jane McHenry

Full tour information and cast and creative biogs here.