'Powerful' novel The Young Team adapted for the stage to tell story of Scotland's gang culture

The Young Team, by Graeme Armstrong, which is also currently being turned into a BBC TV series, is to be premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe next summer, before touring to London and Glasgow.

The novel, published in 2020, tells the story of Azzy Williams, a teenager in Airdrie navigating street gangs, violence and addiction.

Armstrong, who himself grew up in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, where he was heavily involved in violent street gang culture and substance abuse, was inspired to study at Stirling University and ultimately become a writer after reading Trainspotting aged 16.

The play comes shortly after The Young Team was commissioned as a new six-part drama series for BBC Scotland, marking Graeme Armstrong’s scripted screen debut. Produced by Synchronicity Films, the production is currently filming in Scotland.

Armstrong, who credits Trainspotting with turning his life around, is currently undertaking a PhD at the University of Strathclyde and also regularly works within the community visiting prisons and schools, giving talks on his experiences of gang-culture and substance abuse.

He said he was “excited” to see The Young Team adapted for stage “to bring the complex world of Scottish territorial violence to a new audience, particularly those who may have never seen their lives or communities depicted in a theatrical production before”.

Glasgow playwright Kieran Hurley, who was nominated for a BIFA and WGGB Award for his debut screenplay for the film Beats, which was executive produced by Steven Soderbergh and based on his breakout play of the same name, said: “Graeme’s brilliant novel is a powerful example of the epic stories that unfold in ordinary people’s lives, and it has been an honour to be allowed to spend time living in its world.

“As well as an uncompromising and brutally honest account of violence and gang life, it's really a wonderful story of young male friendship, its loyalty, rivalry, and surprising tenderness. I can't wait to see Azzy Williams take over the theatre, bringing these uniquely Scottish voices to the stage, and for audiences to feel the pull of the Young Team: the love and allegiances that bind these boys together, and the damage and hurt they inflict and endure.”

He added: “I hope it will move and provoke and ultimately open a conversation about our young men and their vital, dangerous, and often unrequited search for recognition and belonging.”

The play will be directed by Rachel O’Riordan, former artistic director of Perth Theatre, who is now in the same role at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre in London, which is co-producing the play.

She said: “The novel is a cultural phenomenon - heartbreaking, vital and hilarious.”

The Young Team opens in Edinburgh in August 2027, ahead of a London run at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, and then to The Citizen’s Theatre, Glasgow in autumn 2027.