Dundee-born actor Brian Cox will return to the Scottish stage for the first time in a decade, playing the ghost of Scottish economist Adam Smith, a character he created for himself, in the series The story of RBS is told in a major drama about Scotland's role in the 2008 financial collapse.
Cox, who won a Golden Globe and multiple Emmy nominations for his performance as ailing patriarch and media mogul Logan Roy in TV's Succession , will play an Enlightenment-era economist. Scotland by playwright and screenwriter James Graham.
Graham said: "This is a global story but the epicenter is Scotland and Edinburgh in particular."
Graham has recently received praise for his BBC TV series Sherwood and the popular National Theater production.
Speaking to Cox, Graham revealed that the actor "deftly identified the long path to 2008 that stretches back centuries and begins with Adam Smith Adam Smith and the Beginning of the Enlightenment in Scotland."
Cox told the writer about his "personal obsession" with the father of modern economic theory. "I remember I had dinner with him and I thought maybe Adam Smith's influence would move in the play somehow. But he said, 'No, I think Adam should be there and maybe I should It’s Adam,’” Cox said.
Graham said he was drawn to writing "The Long Shadow" of the crash and "We Can't Reset" after such a catastrophic global event.
He said this had not led to "moments of interrogation and the introduction of new ideas" but rather "we were crawling in the same pattern" that had led to unintended consequences including Brexit and the re-election of Donald Trump. Power America.
"Like all playwrights, I'm trying to feel the mood right now, which is very unstable and unsettling and uncertain, and bring a line back to this moment where I think a lot of the uncertainty begins," Graham said. appear. transparent
The National Theater of Scotland's full program, announced on Friday morning, includes three world premieres, West End transfers, four associate productions and six touring productions, visiting 33 venues across Scotland and London.
Achieving this was directed by Andrew Panton, artistic director of Dundee Rep Theatre, and Cox trained as a young actor. The play will preview in theaters in July before opening the Edinburgh International Festival in August.
The program also includes an exploration of Scottish culture, mythology and identity through Martin O'Connor's new play Shortbread Tin, set in Scots' Gaelic songs and will visit rural venues .
Transferring from London's West End will be David Ireland's hilarious and provocative two-part take on alcoholism and recovery as a man. The collaboration between playwright Frances the Poet and composer Ricky Ross on Lockbie Bombing will open with the Citizens Theater when it reopens this September.
Graham has been celebrated for his treatment of subjects from recent social and political history, including the miners' strike, Brexit and gang culture, and he believes in the value of drama in enabling people to examine the nuances of past events. Binary, provides a rare moment of pause in the flood of information.
"None of the relentless flow of information we receive now constitutes anything - we are always reacting irrationally every day, every minute, every second, every day. This means we are unable to reflect and see to these patterns," he said.
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"In a sense, this explores why we don't have satisfactory answers to some of the biggest questions and challenges we face as a country and the world."
He added that dramatists have an obligation to dive into controversial territory to understand people's motivations and differing perspectives. "The island we live in is truly impenetrable - anything that gets you out of it, even just for two and a half hours, is good."
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