Date Published: 19th January 2026

– Alexander takes theatre into the home

The Royal Lyceum Edinburgh Theatre Announces Writers for their Exciting New Project ‘Lyceum at Home’, Which Aims to Bring Theatre Closer to the People of Edinburgh

Left to right: Stephen Greenhorn, Zinnie Harris (Lyceum Associate Artistic Director), Apphia Campbell, James Brining (Lyceum Artistic Director), Alexander McCall Smith and Isla Cowan.

Coming to a home near you!

This year, as part of their 60th anniversary season, The Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh is commissioning four brand new 30-minute plays and taking them out of the theatre building — into people’s homes. The aim is to perform in every part of the city, so that more people get to experience the magic of live storytelling. THE ROYAL LYCEUM THEATRE itself, sits at the heart of the city in our 140-year-old building welcoming over 100,000 people each year.

After the plays have been performed across the city, the four monologues will be performed on stage at The Lyceum in a quadruple-bill from the 18th – 20th June, allowing the general public to experience these specially commissioned pieces performed together and to celebrate the project.

The plays, written by leading Scottish writers, Apphia Campbell (Black is the Color of My Voice, Through the Mud), Alexander McCall Smith (The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, 44 Scotland Street novels), Isla Cowan (Alright Sunshine, To the Bone),and Stephen Greenhorn (Sunshine on Leith, River City), will reflect the lives, choices, and everyday moments that make this city what it is. How paths are trodden, retrodden, and then abandoned, and how we live together, in one place, connected through shared experiences and shared stories. 

Playwright Apphia Campbell commented:

‘’Lyceum at Home’ is a really important project because it brings theatre directly to an audience in a space that feels really comfortable and familiar for them. Theatre is storytelling and what I particularly love about this project is that the audience who’s watching it can think, oh, you know what, why am I intimidated to go to the theatre? I just want to hear a good story.’

Author Alexander McCall Smith said:

‘Edinburgh is a constant inspiration for me and the idea of being able to write short plays about it was immensely appealing. I think that’s a marvellous idea, getting people involved in the work of The Lyceum, which is a theatre at the heart of the city.’

Playwright Isla Cowan commented:

‘Stories are so important to how we live our lives, and storytelling is how we make our way through the world. I think especially in an age of AI – when we can never be sure if what we’re seeing on our screens is real – live theatre is a necessary antidote, a form of real, human storytelling, creation, and connection. Having real live actors performing in people’s homes and community spaces embraces this crucial human connection that we so need at the moment.

It’s important to tell stories about Edinburgh because it’s such a rich city in terms of its culture, in terms of its geography, architecture, landscape and its arts. I was a member of the Lyceum Youth Theatre when I was growing up, from about the age of eight to right through till I was eighteen, and so being part of this project really feels like ‘coming home’ for me, and I’m excited to be part of Lyceum’s sixty year celebrations.’

Stephen Greenhorn commented:

‘For me, one of the huge attractions about this project is the idea that instead of trying to draw your audience into a theatre building, you’re actually going out to meet your audience on their own territory. The idea that you can anchor your story in a recognisable world that they can relate to is really exciting.

This project boils down what theatre is, it’s a personal interconnection, a social experience. That sitting around a fire kind of intimacy of storytelling. And that for me is the essence of theatre.’

Artistic Director James Brining said:

‘Lyceum@Home is a way of connecting with the people of Edinburgh in a unique and generous way. Being hosted by people across the city, in their own homes, is going to be so magical and in return, the performances of our four new plays by four extraordinary Edinburgh writers, drawn from and about our wonderful city, will entertain our hosts and their guests in their own spaces. It will be an exchange of hospitality, friendship and the deep human drive to share stories.’    

Writer Biographies: 

Apphia Campbell: Lyceum credits: Through The Mud (Stella Quines), Black Is The Color Of My Voice (Seabright Productions). 

Theatre credits: We Will Hear The Angels (Magnetic North), The Last Bordello (Fire Exit), The Color Purple (Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe), No Exit (Blue Lane Theatre), A Raisin in the Sun (Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe).  

Film and TV credits: Sebastian (Mikko Makela), Dog Squad (Cbeebies), Urban Myths (OW Urban Myth Productions for Sky Television), The Novels that Shaped our World (IWC Media for BBC). 

Awards and nominations: Fringe First Winner, Highly commended award from Amnesty International, Scottish Theatre Award (WOKE) 2017, Best Theatre Award (Black Is The Color Of My Voice),IASH fellow (Faith Is)  2021. 

Apphia is a board member of the Edinburgh Fringe Society, and the proud mom of Julian Baga 

Sean GreenHorn: 

Theatre credits: Tracks of the Winter Bear, The Ballad of Crazy Paola, Passing Places (Traverse Theatre), Sunshine on Leith (Dundee Rep), King Matt, Head In The Clouds (TAG), Gilt, Election 99, Dissent, The Salt Wound (7:84 Scotland), Sleeping Around (Paines Plough), The Birds (The Gate), Pinocchio, Giant Steps (Visible Fictions), The Rain Curtain, The Lion’s Mouth (KTC), The Comeback (Byre Theatre), The Tokyo Trip (Cumbernauld Theatre), Heart and Bone (STG). 

Film and TV credits: Sunshine on Leith (DNA, Black Camel), Dept Q (Left Bank, Netflix), Around The World In 80 Days (Slim Film and TV), Dalgliesh (New Pictures, Channel 5), Marchlands (ITV), Doctor Who, River City (BBC), Echo Beach, Wide Sargasso Sea (Kudos), Glasgow Kiss (Wall To Wall), Where The Heart Is (United TV), The Bill (Thames). 

Awards and nominations: Best Writer Film/TV nominee (Around The World In 80 Days) BAFTA Scotland Awards 2022, Best Film nominee (Sunshine On Leith) BAFTA Scotland Awards 2014, Best Musical winner (Sunshine On Leith) TMA Awards 2007, Best Drama Series winner (Doctor Who) Writers Guild Awards 2007, Scottish Writer Of The Year Award nominee (Passing Places) 1998, Best Touring Production nominee (The Salt Wound) TMA Awards 1994, Scotsman Fringe First winner (Heart And Bone) 1989. 

Isla Cowan:

Theatre credits: Alright Sunshine (Tron Theatre, Wonder Fools, Pleasance ENP), Here in the Long Now (Climate Change Theatre Action), To the Bone (Pitlochry Festival Theatre), She Wolf (Assembly Roxy), To Save the Sea (co-written with Andy McGregor, Sleeping Warrior), And… And… And… (Strange Town Touring Company), Jack and the Beanstalk (Hopscotch), Daphne, or Hellfire (Pleasance). 

Awards and nominations: Edinburgh National Partnerships Awards Winner (Alright Sunshine) The Pleasance Theatre 2025, Best Music Nominee (Lyricist on Battery Park) Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland 2024, Assembly ART Award Winner (She Wolf) Assembly Festivals 2022, Filipa Bragança Award Nominee (She Wolf) 2022, Alpine Fellowship Theatre Prize Winner (She Wolf) 2021, St Andrews Playwriting Award Shortlist 2022, Phil Fox Award Shortlist Outside Edge 2020, Verity Bargate Award Top 100 2020, Best Play Winner (Waiting) Cambridge New Writing Festival 2017. 

Isla was the 2024 Playwright in Residence at The Traverse (IASH) and is Resident Writer at the Tron Theatre. 

Sir Alexander McCall Smith:

Alexander McCall Smith, often referred to as ‘Sandy’,  is one of the world’s most prolific and best-loved authors. For many years he was a professor of Medical Law and worked in universities in the UK and abroad before turning his hand to writing fiction. He has written and contributed to more than 100 books including specialist academic titles, short story collections, and a number of immensely popular children’s books. His first book, The White Hippo— a children’s book, was published by Hamish Hamilton in 1980.

But it wasn’t until the publication of the highly successful The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series that Alexander became a household name. The series has now sold over twenty million copies in the English language alone, and since the books took off, he has devoted his time to writing.

His various series of books have been translated into forty-six languages and become bestsellers throughout the world. These include the popular 44 Scotland Street novels, first published as a serial novel in the Scotsman newspaper and now the longest-running serial novel in the world; the Isabel Dalhousie novels, and the von Igelfeld entertainments. He is also the author of the Corduroy Mansions series, which started life as an engaging cross-media serial written for the Telegraph online. And most recently, he launched the Ulf Varg series of Scandi blanc novels set in Sweden and the Perfect Passion Company series set in a dating agency in Edinburgh.

In addition to these series, Alexander has written a number of stand-alone novels and short story collections, including, The Private Side of Friendship, The Winds from Further West, The Good Pilot Peter Woodhouse, My Italian Bulldozer, The Second Worst Restaurant in France, Fatty O’Leary’s Dinner Party, Chance Developments and Pianos and Flowers, Trains and Lovers, The Exquisite Art of Getting Even and The Private Life of Spies.

Earlier stand-alone books include Trains and Lovers: A Heart’s Journey; The Forever Girl; La’s Orchestra Saves the World; and Emma—a reworking of the classic Jane Austen novel.

He has also authored many non-fiction titles, the latest of which are A Work of Beauty: Alexander McCall Smith’s Edinburgh and What W.H. Auden Can Do For You.

In 2015, Alexander started a new (and subsequently very successful children’s series) — The School Ship Tobermory. There are now four books in the series. This increased the number of children’s books he has written to more than thirty.

Awards: Alexander has received numerous awards for his writing and holds twelve honorary doctorates from universities in Europe and North America. In 2007 he received a CBE for services to literature and in 2011 was honoured by the President of Botswana for services through literature to the country. In 2015 he received the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction and in 2017, The National Arts Club (of America) Medal of Honor for Achievement in Literature. In 2020, he received the honorary fellowship of the FT Weekend Oxford Literary Festival. And in 2022 he received the Lifetime Achievement in the Saltire Literary Awards.

In 2024, he was honoured as Knight Bachelor by His Majesty King Charles III for services to literature, academia and charity.

You can take part! Read more on the Lyceum website

Book tickets for Lyceum shows at their Box Office: 0131 248 4848 / boxoffice@lyceum.org.uk