V.L.
Max and Stevie are just two wee guys trying to survive in an ordinary Scottish secondary school. But to survive, sometimes you need to hide. And there’s no hiding when you’re a VL.
VL is a Virgin Lips. It means you’ve never kissed a lassie, or a laddie. The longer you stay a VL, the more of a VL you become.
Another raucous and riotous comedy from the Fringe First Award-winning writers of Square Go, about young boys trying to navigate love, romance and status in the chaotic, hormonal pressure cooker of a small-town school.
Cast
Max
Scott Fletcher
Scott Fletcher trained at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
Theatre Credits: The Dogstone, 365, Calum’s Road, Tall Tales for Small People and UK and World Tours of Black Watch (National Theatre of Scotland), Underwood Lane (Tron Theatre); Square Go (Francesca Moody Productions/Paines Plough), The Slab Boys and Cuttin’ A Rug (Citizens Theatre), Gary: Tank Commander – Mission Quite Possible (Live at the SSE Hydro), A Respectable Widow Takes to Vulgarity (Traverse Theatre/Òran Mór), Peter Pan (Royal Lyceum Theatre), The Infamous Brothers Davenport (Royal Lyceum Theatre/Vox Motus), Romeo and Juliet (Bard in the Botanics).
Scott has been playing series regular Angus Lindsay in BBC’s River City since 2014. Other film/TV work includes: The Little Vampire (Warner Brothers), Gary: Tank Commander, Only an Excuse?, Monarch of the Glen (BBC), Taggart (STV), In Plain Sight (ITV), Six Four (ITV) and Dog Squad (CBeebies).
Scott has also recorded plays for BBC Radio Scotland and BBC Radio 4.
Stevie
Gavin Jon Wright
Gavin Jon Wright trained at Coatbridge College.
Theatre Credits: Black Watch (National Theatre of Scotland), Dragon (National Theatre of Scotland/Vox Motus), Titus and The Secret Garden (Red Bridge Arts), touring nationally and internationally, A Respectable Widow Takes to Vulgarity (Traverse/59 East 59 NYC), Spring Awakening (Traverse/Grid Iron), Decky Does A Bronco (Grid Iron), Square Go (Francesca Moody Productions/59 East 59 NYC), Scenes Unseen, Miracle on 34 Parnie Street, Ulysses – Chinese Tour, The Lying Kind and Nae Expectations (Tron Theatre), Trainspotting (Citizens’ Theatre), News Just In (Random Accomplice), Whisky Galore! – A Musical, The Servant o Twa Maisters, and The Life of Stuff (Pitlochry Festival Theatre), as well as 10 productions at Oran Mor’s A Play, A Pie and A Pint seasons. Gavin has also performed in pantomimes all over Scotland from Dumfries to Pitlochry, Perth to Stirling and Cumbernauld and since 2019 has spent the last few Christmases performing at Ayr Gaiety Theatre.
His TV credits include Annika, Stevens & McCarthy, Unfair, In Plain Sight, Shetland, River City, Still Game, Taggart, Lip Service and Dear Green Place. Radio & voiceover experience includes work for BBC Radio Drama, Borgen and Ridley Jones.
Creative Team
Kieran Hurley is an award-winning playwright based in Glasgow, Scotland. “One of the leading Scottish dramatists to emerge in the new millennium” (The National), his plays are by turns deeply intimate and searingly political and have earned a reputation for confronting demanding socio-political themes with humour, nuance, and humanity.
Notable works include Adults (2023), The Enemy (2022), Mouthpiece (2019), Heads Up (2016), and Beats (2012). Hurley’s plays have been produced across the globe and have been translated into many languages, including German, Portuguese, Turkish, Basque, and Korean.
Hurley also writes for screen, including on the critically successful feature film adaptation of his play Beats, produced by Ken Loach’s Sixteen Films and Executive Produced by Steven Soderbergh, for which he received a BIFA nomination for best debut screenwriter and WGGB nomination for best screenplay.
Hurley is co-Artistic Director of Disaster Plan, a radical new work company in Glasgow, Scotland. His plays, including a recent Plays 1 collection, are published by Methuen.
Awards include:
- Critics Award for Theatre in Scotland, Best New Play, for Beats (2013) and Heads Up (2016)
- Hector MacMillan Award for Best New Scottish Play, for Mouthpiece (2019)
- Carol Tambor Award for new writing, for Mouthpiece (2019)
- Fringe First Award for outstanding new writing on the Edinburgh Fringe, for Heads Up (2016) and Square Go (2018)
Gary McNair is a writer and performer from Glasgow. He aims to make work that will challenge and entertain audiences in equal measure. His work has been translated into several languages and been performed around the world from America to Australia, from Germany to Japan, and from Portugal to Possilpark. He is a mainstay of the Edinburgh Fringe where his last seven shows have sold out and he has won the coveted Scotsman Fringe First Award three times.
He is an Associate Artist at both the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh and the Tron in Glasgow. He loves telling stories and is delighted that people want to hear them.
Recent works include: Dear Billy (National Theatre of Scotland), Jekyll and Hyde (Reading Rep/The Lyceum), Black Diamonds and the Blue Brazil (The Lyceum), Nae Expectations, The Alchemist (The Tron), Square Go [co-authored by Kieran Hurley] (Francesca Moody Productions/Paines Plough), McGonagall’s Chronicles (Oran Mor), Locker Room Talk/Letters to Morrissey/Donald Robertson Is Not a Standup Comedian (The Traverse), A Gambler’s Guide To Dying (Show and Tell/The Traverse). Many of these titles and more are also available from Methuen at www.bloomsbury.com
Orla was listed in the Observer as one of the top fifty Cultural Leaders in the UK and in The List Hot 100 of Women in the Arts.
She was Artistic Director of the Traverse Theatre where directing credits included the award winning productions: Mouthpiece (Traverse Theatre/Soho Theatre/ Melbourne and Auckland International Arts Festivals), What Girls are Made Of (Traverse Theatre, Assembly, Tramway, Tron, Soho, Adelaide, Sao Paulo and Spoleto International Theatre Festivals), Swallow (Traverse), Ciara (Traverse, Tron), Spoiling (Traverse, Theatre Royal Stratford East), Meet Me at Dawn (Edinburgh International Festival) and Locker Room Talk (Abbey Theatre, Latitude Festival, BBC Radio, 4, Scottish Parliament, Traverse).
Other directing includes: James V: Katherine, (Raw Material and Capital Theatres
Edinburgh), Enough of Him (National Theatre of Scotland), How Much is Your Iron? (Young Vic), The Hound of the Baskervilles (West Yorkshire Playhouse/ UK Tour/West
End), Kebab (Dublin International Theatre Festival/ Royal Court), For Once (Hampstead Theatre/ UK Tour), The Fire Raisers (BAC), Black Comedy, Blithe Spirit, Relatively Speaking (Watermill Theatre), Small Talk: Big Picture (BBC World Service/Royal Court/ICA), Women Talking (Edinburgh International Book festival, Toronto Festival of Authors), A Respectable Widow Takes to Vulgarity and Clean (Oran Mor and 59E59, New York).
Her work has won a variety of awards including The James Menzies Kitchin Directors Award, Herald Angels, Fringe Firsts, Critics Award for Theatre in Scotland, The Stage Awards and Writers Guild of Great Britain Awards. Her recent production of The Time Machine: A Comedy at the Park Theatre, was nominated for an Olivier Award in the ‘outstanding achievement in an affiliate theatre’ category.
Orla is a former Artistic Director of Pentabus Theatre, Associate Director of the Royal Court Theatre and Resident Assistant Director at the Donmar Warehouse where she was awarded the Carlton Bursary.
Orla is currently Vice Principal and Director of Drama at Guildhall School of Music and
Drama where she was conferred the title Professor in 2020 in recognition of her ‘outstanding contribution to the advancement of her discipline’.
Anna Orton is a designer working across Theatre, Dance, Opera and Exhibition. Her previous work exhibiting, performing and curating as a visual artist in some of Scotland’s most pioneering spaces continues to influence her work in performance design.
Her design work includes the multi-award-winning production of Handel’s Messiah directed by Tom Morris, which premiered at Bristol Old Vic and was followed by a national cinema and online streaming release.
Other recent work includes: Oedipus Rex (Scottish Opera), GUNTER (Dirty Hare/ Royal Court), Escaped Alone (Tron Theatre/ Traverse), Blond Eckbert and Acis & Galatea (Hans Otto Theatre, Germany), Adults (Traverse Theatre), Kidnapped (National Theatre of Scotland), This Is Memorial Device (Royal Lyceum Edinburgh, Fringe First Award/ UK Tour), Robin Hood Legend of the Forgotten Forest and King Lear (Bristol Old Vic), The Tsar Has His Photo Taken and La Bohème (Scottish Opera), Peter Pan and Wendy and A Christmas Carol (Pitlochry – Shortlisted for Best Emerging Designer, World Stage Design Awards 2021), Welcome Home (Soho Theatre) and The Effect (English Theatre Frankfurt).
She has designed for many prestigious companies including Live Theatre Newcastle, English Touring Opera, Buxton Opera Festival, Theatre Ad Infinitum, Bath Theatre Royal, Stellar Quines, The New Theatre Dublin and The Watermill Theatre amongst others.
She was recipient of the OLD VIC 12 Designer Affiliation in 2019, an MGC Futures recipient in 2021 and was the first JMK runner up in 2023. Anna’s designs have also been nominated for the Offies and CATS awards. She has an MA in Theatre Design from Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and an MA in Fine art from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design.
Simon works internationally as a lighting designer for theatre, dance, and opera.
Recent highlights include Punchdrunk’s Viola’s Room, the world premiere of Disney’s Bedknobs and Broomsticks (UK & Ireland), Islander (US Tour / New York / London), Vanishing Point’s Metamorphosis (Scotland / Italy), Vox Motus’s Flight (worldwide) and Robert Lepage’s production of The Magic Flute (Quebec City).
For the National Theatre of Scotland, Simon has lit The Panopticon, Interference, The 306: Dawn, Dragon, The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish & Roman Bridge. He has designed work for most of Scotland’s leading theatre companies, including Love the Sinner, A Love Beyond, The Metamorphosis, The Dark Carnival (Vanishing Point); Group Portrait in a Summer Landscape, Castle Lennox, Glory on Earth, The Iliad, The Weir, Hedda Gabler, The Caucasian Chalk Circle and Bondagers (Lyceum); Crocodile Fever, Our Fathers, Meet Me at Dawn, Letters to Morrissey, Grain in the Blood (Traverse); I Am Tiger, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, Knives in Hens (Perth Theatre); Don Quixote, The Children and Tay Bridge (Dundee Rep); The Stamping Ground (Raw Material); A Mother’s Song (KT Producing); Muster Station: Leith (Grid Iron/Edinburgh International Festival)
Simon has won the Critics Award For Theatre in Scotland for Best Design three times – for Flight, Black Beauty, and Bondagers, and won a 2024 Profile Award for Ragnarok. Over the years, his lighting has created a Guinness World Record, brought tens of thousands of people to a windswept Highland Forest and caused reports of an alien invasion.
Kieran is an award-nominated sound designer, composer and theatremaker.
Selected sound and composition credits include: Winter’s Tale (Dailes Teātris, Latvia), The Legend of Ned Ludd, A Billion Times I Love You (Liverpool Everyman), Showdown (Chamalëon, Berlin), Shooting Hedda Gabler (Rose Theatre), Sea Words (Summerhall), Chester Mystery Plays (Chester Cathedral), The Marvelous Myth Hunter Ceilidh (Southbank Centre), Hungry (Soho Theatre/Paines Plough Roundabout), May Queen (Belgrade Theatre), First Touch (Nottingham Playhouse), SHTF (Schauspielhaus, Vienna), Black Love, May Queen, Really Big & Really Loud (Paines Plough Roundabout), Deciphering, Antigone, A Girl in School Uniform (Walks into a Bar) (New Diorama), The Future Project (Streatham Space Project), Me For The World, My Name Is Rachel Corrie (Young Vic), GASTRONOMIC (Shoreditch Town Hall/ Norwich Theatre Royal), Found Sound (Coventry Cathedral), Companion: Moon, How We Save The World (Natural History Museum), TBCTV (Somerset House), Square Go (Paines Plough Roundabout/ 59E59), The Drill (Battersea Arts Centre), Hear Me Raw (Soho Theatre/Arcola Theatre), Under The Skin (St. Paul’s Cathedral).
Simon Liddell and Andy Monaghan have been making music together for over 15 years. Both former members of Frightened Rabbit, they collaborated on the score for Square Go (Francesca Moody Productions) for which they received a Drama Desk nomination.
Individually, Andy’s musical collaborations include producing records for We Were Promised Jetpacks, Tanita Tikaram, Man Of Moon, Lewis McLaughlin and Jill Lorean.
Simon’s theatre credits include Dear Billy (National Theatre of Scotland), Games (Henry Naylor), Strange Rocks / Undocumented (Mull Theatre), The Domestic (National Theatre of Scotland / Scenes for Survival), McGonagall’s Chronicles (Play, a Pie and a Pint), After the Cuts (Raw Material).
Eve Nicol is a Glaswegian director and writer of music-filled stories about heartbreak and hope.
Directing credits include critically acclaimed premieres I Can Go Anywhere (Traverse), The Drift (National Theatre of Scotland) and The Mistress Contract (Tron).
As Associate Director; Islander (US tour), James V: Katherine (Raw Material & Capital Theatres), What Girls Are Made Of (Raw Material & Traverse) and THEM! (National Theatre of Scotland).
Credits as Writer include a “boundary-breaking” (The Stage) debut play One Life Stand (Middle Child), the stage adaptation of Belle & Sebastian’s iconic album If You’re Feeling Sinister’ (Avalon & BBC Arts) and the award-winning Svengali (Pitlochry Festival Theatre & Pleasance).
Janice Parker is an independent dance artist based in Edinburgh. She works locally and internationally, creating both large and small scale works, across art forms, always in collaboration, often out with the mainstream and with a diverse spectrum of people and organisations.
Recent theatre credits include: A Giant On The Bridge (Jo Mango/Liam Hurley), James V Katherine (Raw Material/Edinburgh Festival Theatre), Two Sisters (Lyceum Edinburgh/Malmö Stadsteater), Castle Lennox (Lung Ha/Lyceum), The Strange Undoing of Prudentia Hart (Lyceum/National Theatre of Scotland), Medea (Edinburgh International Festival/National Theatre of Scotland), Life Is a Dream, The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other, Glory on Earth (Lyceum).
Recent dance credits include: To Avoid Falling Apart (The Travelling Gallery), Not Brittle, Not Rigid, Not Fixed (Edinburgh Art Festival), Small Acts of Hope and Lament (Edinburgh International Festival), Writing the Body (National Galleries of Scotland).
Awards Include: Herald Angel, Creative Scotland Award, Saltire Society Outstanding Woman of Scotland.
Ailsa is a Costume Supervisor with 20 years of experience in Theatre. Trained at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, graduating in 2004 with a BA in Technical and Production Arts. The year she graduated saw her reach the final of the World Stage Design competition, hosted in Toronto, for her Costume Design of Spring Awakening. She worked as Scenic Artist at the Citizens Theatre for 4 years before moving across into Wardrobe.
Ailsa was a Wardrobe Assistant on the International Tour of Saturday Night Fever, Deputy Wardrobe Mistress on Fame the Musical in London’s West End, then taking this on a UK Tour as Wardrobe Mistress. Moving back to Scotland, Ailsa has Costume Supervised for the National Theatre of Scotland, RCS, Scottish Opera, Citizens Theatre and the MacRobert Arts Centre amongst others. Ailsa has also Set and Costume Designed a variety of shows for the Citizens Theatre Young Co and Community Companies, her most recent design being for PAL your AI Companion in the Tramway, April 2023 and this year as Associate Designer for Scottish Opera’s Oedipus Rex. Fair to say she is passionate about all things Costume!
Pete is Director of Production with production management company eStage. His career has seen him undertake numerous production management roles as well as technical and design roles across multiple disciplines. He has managed productions and touring artists worldwide at venues and festivals such as The Barbican, The Roundhouse, Hackney Empire, Busan International Performing Arts Festival, Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Bristol Old Vic, Schaubühne Berlin, Soho Theatre, Liverpool Everyman, Battersea Arts Centre, Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham NEC, Nottingham Playhouse and multiple UK/EU/Asian tours.
Pete is a musician, a pragmatist, an animal lover and a keen home cook1
Amy has worked in stage management on a variety of shows, including RGM’s Priscilla The Party, Secret Cinema’s Wishmas, Rematch Live’s Rumble in The Jungle, Immersive Everywhere’s Peaky Blinders: The Rise, Eleanor Lloyd’s Vardy V Rooney: The Wagatha Christie Trial, and many more.
She has an MA in Advanced Theatre Practice from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, and a BA (Hons) in Theatre from the University of Chichester.
Production
Francesca Moody Productions is an Olivier Award-winning and Tony-nominated production company.
Current productions include: Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder! (The Ambassadors Theatre); I’m Almost There and Weather Girl (Summerhall); V.L. (Roundabout).
Recent productions include Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible is Going to Happen (Bush Theatre); Nutcracker (Southbank Centre); Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder! (Underbelly Edinburgh, Bristol Old Vic, HOME Manchester, Roundabout); An Oak Tree (Bergen International Festival, Festival d’Avignon, Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh); School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play (Lyric Hammersmith); A Doll’s House (Hudson Theatre, New York); A Streetcar Named Desire (Phoenix Theatre); Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons (Harold Pinter Theatre); Berlusconi: A New Musical (Southwark Playhouse Elephant); Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible is Going to Happen (Roundabout); Mum (Soho Theatre); Leopards (Rose Theatre); Baby Reindeer (Bush Theatre, Roundabout).
FMP is led by Francesca Moody MBE, who is best known as the original producer of the multi-award-winning Fleabag by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, which she has produced globally on behalf of DryWrite, most recently at the Wyndhams Theatre, when it was also recorded and broadcast by NT Live, playing in cinemas throughout the world.
www.francescamoody.com
Dianne is delighted to be co-producing three exciting new Edinburgh Fringe shows with Francesca Moody Productions. She has already supported Francesca’s hugely successful musical Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder! and Feeling Afraid as If Something Terrible is going to Happen – both of which have had acclaimed transfers to the West End.
Dianne has been a producer and investor in many exciting productions including Olivier and Tony award winning Girl from the North Country. Her support for new productions include several Edinburgh Fringe Shows such as Unfortunate, the Untold Story of Ursula the Sea Witch and Lady Dealer. She is also working with a new musical development company creating original work with young writers. Her philanthropic work includes supporting productions at the Almeida and the Royal Academy of Music where she supports the Musical Theatre and Jazz programmes.