Red Dust Road

Are we as shaped by the folksongs we hear as we are by the cells in our bodies? Red Dust Road is adapted from the soul-searching memoir by Jackie Kay, poet, playwright, novelist and Scottish Makar. It’s a journey full of heart, humour and profound emotion, exploring race, identity and family secrets, with a deeply human curiosity and compassion. Born in Edinburgh, Jackie Kay grew up in Glasgow in the 1970s as the adopted, mixed-race child of lifelong committed communists. As a child, while watching cowboys and Indians on TV, Jackie noticed her skin was a different colour to her mother’s. In searching for answers to what makes her – nature or nurture – she decided to find her birth parents. Travelling from Scotland to Nigeria, Red Dust Road chronicles Jackie’s 20-year search for her biological mother and father and her quest for them to recognise her own existence.

World Premiere