Everyone has a Tully Dawson: the friend that defines your life. This tale of 80s youth and facing mortality in middle age is a joyous and heart-breaking elegy to the young people we still carry within us. With an epic soundtrack forged straight from the heart of the 80s, a former metal works in Leith echoes the iconic venues of Manchester’s music scene, providing an ideal setting for this love letter to friendship, and a pledge: go at life differently. Producer, Chief Executive and Co-Artistic Director of Grid Iron who founded the company in 1995, Jude Doherty said: “Grid Iron has had a blessed 30 years. Believe me, it hasn’t always been plain sailing, but we have had incredible opportunities and have always been surrounded by wonderful talented people, with wonderful intrepid friends. And it is because of those auspicious connections, that we have found ourselves in the position of adapting Andrew’s extremely special book for the stage. “Our long time colleague, and close pal David Paul Jones, introduced Ben Harrison and I to his friend Andrew O’Hagan after Ben revealed a burning desire to adapt Mayflies. So, here we find ourselves, working on a beautiful piece concerning all that is important about being human - friendship, love, dignity, freedom of choice - all the things we hope that our work has explored and championed over the years. There could not be a more fitting production to mark our 30th year. “As a company we are also so proud to be based in Leith, and, while we were very sad to see George Brown & Son move out, we had secretly been coveting their building for years. So it was with delight that we struck up our relationship with Custom Lane and Brown’s of Leith to use their rear warehouse, a space hugely reminiscent of the iconic Manchester buildings so vividly portrayed in Mayflies. “We hope we do the novel justice and make our audiences, all the remarkable people we’re working with on this show, and all who we have worked with in the past, proud. Thank you to everyone who has travelled with us over the past 30 years. We may not have 30 more in us, but we’re definitely not done yet!” Presented as part of this year’s Made in Scotland showcase at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Mayflies is staged at the iconic Brown’s of Leith - a unique collaborative space for food, drink and creative practice, which opened in November 2025. Representing a major step in the regeneration of the area, Brown’s of Leith sits within the historic George Brown & Sons Engineering Works on The Shore, overlooking the Water of Leith.

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