Author photo: Robert Ormerod
THE YOUNG TEAM – Graeme Armstrong’s award-winning debut novel – is set to hit the stage in 2027, in an adaptation co-produced by the National Theatre of Scotland and the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre in London. Adapted for the stage by Kieran Hurley and directed by the Lyric Hammersmith’s Artistic Director Rachel O’Riordan, the play will make its bow at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Summer 2027, before coming to London for a limited engagement from 2 September until 25 September. It will end its first run at the Citizen’s Theatre, Glasgow, later in Autumn 2027.
Tickets for the London shows at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre are on sale now.
THE YOUNG TEAM is a searing exploration of masculinity and tribalism about a group of teens drawn into the orbit of the local Young Team Posse in Scotland’s post-industrial heartland. First published by Picador in 2020, and inspired by Graeme Armstrong’s own experiences in North Lanarkshire in the early 2000’s, the novel won a Betty Trask Award, a Somerset Maugham Award, and the Scots Book o the Year 2021. A TV adaptation, produced by Synchronicity Films for BBC One and BBC Scotland and starring a cast of breakthrough local talent alongside established stars Kevin McKidd (GREY’S ANATOMY) and Laura Fraser (BREAKING BAD), is currently filming ahead of broadcast in 2027.
‘I’m excited to see THE YOUNG TEAM adapted for stage and look forward to working with both Rachel and Kieran 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’ said Graeme.
‘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,’ added Kieran Hurley, playwright/adapter of THE YOUNG TEAM. ‘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. 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.’
Rachel O’Riordan, the director of THE YOUNG TEAM, said: ‘I am so proud to be directing Kieran Hurley’s stage version of THE YOUNG TEAM by Graeme Armstrong. The novel is a cultural phenomenon – heartbreaking, vital and hilarious… Partnering with National Theatre Scotland on the stage adaption of Graeme Armstrong’s blistering debut novel feels like a vital and exciting connection. Writer Kieran Hurley and I, with a tremendous creative team, will share this powerful story with audiences in both Scotland and London in a bold theatrical experience’
‘You’re loyal Azzy Williams. You’re loyal to your mates. That’s good. You’ll no be runnin aboot wae that lot forever but, surely?’
Welcome to Scotland in 2005.
For Azzy, born and bred in North Lanarkshire, the Young Team Posse (YTP) seems to promise everything he could possibly want: excitement, community, freedom. It’s where boys become men, and he’s hungry to grow up.
Soon he’s rising up the ranks, showing the world what he’s made of. It’s fast, furious – and dangerous. Is the Young Team where Azzy belongs, or just where he’s ended up? Either way, the YTP is for life. Getting in is easy, not so finding a way back out…
About Graeme Armstrong
Graeme Armstrong is a Scottish writer from Airdrie. His teenage years were spent within North Lanarkshire’s gang culture. Alongside overcoming his own struggles with drug addiction, alcohol abuse and violence, he defied expectation to read English as an undergraduate at the University of Stirling; where, after graduating with honours, he returned to study a Masters’ in Creative Writing. He is currently undertaking a PhD at the University of Strathclyde.
Graeme regularly works within the community visiting prisons and schools, giving talks on his experiences of gang-culture and substance abuse. He promotes a message of anti-violence and abstinence-based recovery.
His bestselling debut novel, THE YOUNG TEAM (Picador, 2020), is inspired by his experiences. It won a Betty Trask Award, a Somerset Maugham Award, and the Scots Book o the Year 2021, and is set for both TV and stage adaptations in 2027. Graeme’s second novel, RAVEHEART, was published by 4th Estate in 2026.
In 2021, Graeme presented Scotland: The Rave, a documentary broadcast by the BBC that explored Scotland’s rave and PCDJ culture, subsequently nominated for a BAFTA Scotland and RTS Scotland Award 2022. His second documentary series, Street Gangs, where Graeme reflects on his own past as an ex-gang member to try to understand life inside a modern gang, aired on the BBC in October 2023.
In 2023, Graeme was chosen as one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists, an accolade that is awarded once a decade.
Praise for THE YOUNG TEAM
‘(A) firecracker of a debut... a welcome noughties update of Kingsley Amis’s beer-soaked hanxiety in Lucky Jim.’ – Suzi Feay, The Guardian
‘Raw and lyrical... written in a voice that recalls Irvine Welsh and Alan Warner – dialect that fizzes off the page.’ – The Observer
‘Armstrong’s writing captures what it’s like to be a young, angry man in a way most novels could only dream of. Yet, in spite of the constant violence and disenfranchisement experienced by the characters in the text, there’s a chewy core of hope at the centre of THE YOUNG TEAM to latch onto.’ – Lucas Oakeley, ‘5 Books Redefining Modern Masculinity’, Service95
