Brian Cox to star in new James Graham play Make It Happen

The National Theatre of Scotland has unveiled its 2025 programme, featuring three world premieres.

James Graham’s satirical play Make It Happen, directed by Andrew Panton, will mark Brian Cox’s return to the Scottish stage after a decade this summer.

The play, which plots the demise of the Royal Bank of Scotland in the late ’00s, will preview at Dundee Rep Theatre in late July before running at the Festival Theatre as part of the Edinburgh International Festival from 30 July to 9 August 2025. Cox will take on the role of legendary 18th century economist Adam Smith, here dubbed “the ghost of fiscal past.”

Graham explained: “Like many writers, an Edinburgh stage is the first place ever I dared put a full play in front of an audience. To be invited to join the prestigious Edinburgh International Festival programme this summer is an honour and a thrill. And to work with the National Theatre of Scotland, the Dundee Rep, and of course – Brian Cox, whom I’ve been desperate to write for for as long as I can remember.

“We still live in the long shadow of the 2008 financial crash and our inability to reset from that inheritance and its divisive legacies, so it feels right to be interrogating it artistically. But we hope to do so in a show full of music and story, larger-than-life characters, cheeky humour, and some ghosts from Scotland’s centuries’ long past thrown in as well…”

The creative team includes set designer Anna Fleischle, costume co-designers Anna Fleischle and Angelica Rush, movement director Emily Jane Boyle, musical supervisor and arranger Martin Lowe, lighting designer Lizzie Powell, sound designer Tingying Dong, video co-designers Lewis den Hertog and Anna Fleischle, associate designer Angelica Rush, and casting director Stuart Burt.

Beyond this, Martin O’Connor’s Through the Shortbread Tin, performed in Scots with Gaelic songs, will tour rural Scottish venues in April and May. Martin Green’s Keli, a story of a teenager in a former mining town, will feature live brass band music and tour Scotland after opening at the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh in May.

As announced yesterday, David Ireland’s acclaimed play The Fifth Step, starring Jack Lowden and Martin Freeman, will transfer to the West End for an 11-week run at @sohoplace from May to July. You can read a full-length interview with Ireland here.

Other productions include Frances Poet’s Small Acts of Love, a reflection on the bonds forged in Lockerbie after the Pan Am 103 tragedy, and Uma Nada-Rajah’s Black Hole Sign, which delves into the challenges faced by NHS nurses. Both plays will premiere later in the year.

For younger audiences, Vee Smith and Sadiq Ali present The Unlikely Friendship of Feather Boy and Tentacle Girl, a visually engaging show touring Scotland and featuring at the Edinburgh International Children’s Festival. Additionally, Thank U, Next, is a dance-theatre project exploring cosplay culture, which will tour high schools in February and March.

Community engagement remains a priority. Caring Scotland, led by Nicola McCartney, continues to gather stories from care-experienced individuals, while Trolleydarity, by Shona Reppe and Alan Grieve, offers an interactive hospital-based experience. The Neighbourhood Project will return to Sauchiehall Street with a community variety show and a food-focused residency in Possil.

The National Theatre of Scotland’s digital offerings include Kinaara (Edge), a short bilingual film by Kal Sabir, and ongoing access to Hope Dickson Leach’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Hyde and Hannah Lavery’s audio drama Finding Seaglass.