Scottish Theatre Highlights: May 2026

Scottish theatre in May seems grounded in real lives and recent histories, with stories of labour, protest and personal survival on stage across the month.

At Glasgow’s Tron Theatre, Stand & Deliver: The Lee Jeans Sit-In (until 9 May) revisits the 1981 Greenock factory strike, developed with the women who took part. It’s a local story with contemporary resonance, rooted in a collective action that threads through even the making of the show. Questions of work and class continue at the Citz, where Sweat (2-16 May) examines the unravelling of friendships in a Pennsylvania steel town. Lynn Nottage’s play returns later in the month at the Royal Lyceum Theatre (27 May-13 Jun), giving Edinburgh audiences a chance to catch an unflinching look at economic decline and its human cost.

The Lyceum also stages Black Diamonds and the Blue Brazil (8-23 May), a warmer counterpoint of family, football and belonging. Meanwhile, Dundee Rep will see Educating Rita (from 23 May), Willy Russell’s familiar tale of an unlikely friendship between a hairdresser and an academic.

At the Traverse Theatre, political storytelling continues with The Freshwater Five (15-16 May), revisiting the controversial case of five Isle of Wight fishermen imprisoned for alleged drug smuggling. This is followed by Baby Mash-Up, What On Earth Are You Doing? (22-23 May), which also plays at the Tron Theatre (14-15 May), blending Troubles-era drama with something surreal and unsettling.

Raghad Chaar in Revolution Days, showing at Citizens Theatre. Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic

Back at the Citizens Theatre, Night Waking (13-16 May) adapts Sarah Moss’s novel into a portrait of motherhood on the edge, while Revolution Days (20-23 May) draws on the real experiences of a Scottish-Arab aid worker doing humanitarian work during the Arab Spring.

Across the month, May keeps its focus on people under pressure at work, at home, and in the middle of history as it unfolds.