V.L. Will Be Performed as Part of Paines Plough Roundabout's 10th Anniversary Year 

V.L.  by Kieran Hurley and Gary McNair comes to Paines Plough Roundabout @ Summerhall, 1st - 26th August @ 20.10 (70 mins)

The producers of Fleabag, Baby Reindeer and Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder today announce the world premiere of V.L., another raucous and riotous comedy from the Fringe First Award-winning writers of Edinburgh Festival smash-hit Square Go, about young boys trying to navigate peer pressures, sexual anxieties, and social status in the chaotic hormonal pressure cooker of a small-town school.

Max and Stevie are just two wee guys trying to survive in the cosmic chaos of An Ordinary Scottish Secondary School. But to survive, sometimes you need to triumph. And triumph you need to not be a sad wee loser wi no mates. And as everyone knows, you'll always be a sad wee loser wi no mates as long as you're a VL.

For those of you that don't know a VL is a Virgin Lips. It means you've never kissed a lassie, or a laddie, or anybody for that matter. It's a rite of passage thing, and the longer you stay a VL, the more of a VL you become.

This hilarious and touching new play is written by two of Scotland's brightest theatre makers Kieran Hurley (ADULTS,Mouthpiece, Beats) and Gary McNair (Dear Billy, Locker Room Talk, A Gambler's Guide to Dying) and is the follow up to their Fringe-First award-winning Square Go which they previously collaborated on with Francesca Moody Productions. Square Go wowed audiences and critics alike in two sell out runs at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2018 and 2019 before a UK tour and a run at 59E59 Theatres in New York.

V.L. sees Kieran and Gary reunite with director Orla O'Loughlin (What Girls Are Made Of, Enough of Him, Mouthpiece, Locker Room Talk) along with Scott Fletcher (River City, BBC; Black Watch, NTS) and Gavin Jon Wright (Black Watch, NTS; Taggart, ITV) who revisit the roles of Max and Stevie after originating them in the award-winning 2018 premiere of Square Go.

V.L. will be premiered as part of Roundabout's 10th Anniversary year, the home of the original Square Go.

Writers Kieran Hurley and Gary McNair say: "In Square Go, we told the story of Max and Stevie as Max prepares for the masculine coming of age challenge of a fight at the school gates, a square go. This time round, in V.L., we meet our boys as they try to navigate the absurd sexual rites of passage of hetero-masculinity. As with Square Go, we're fascinated by the high school playground as a brutal training ground where young boys learn their role within the absurd competitive, punitive rules that shape the violences of the adult world. But there's bags of heart and humour in all this too, in the recognition of our own ludicrous and bruising teenage experiences. At this stage in their lives, Max and Stevie are just kids trying to survive a world they did not invent. And who knows, maybe they'll manage to figure out something better than we did?"

Francesca Moody said: "It's a dream come true to be reuniting with Kieran and Gary, revisiting the characters of Max and Stevie (with the brilliant actors who originated them) and returning to Paines Plough's amazing Roundabout Theatre this August, all under the fearless directorship of the brilliant Orla O'Loughlin. V.L. promises to be everything that I hope theatre should be, entertaining, accessible and political. It's going to be an absolutely banging 70 minutes of theatre that audiences will fall in love with and I can't wait to see it come to life."

This year marks Francesca Moody Productions sixth presenting work in Edinburgh where they have produced some of the most successful shows to come out of the festival to date. In the wake of Baby Reindeer making tidal waves as a No.1 Netflix show globally and the impending West End opening of Kathy and Stella Solve A Murder, both of which began their lives at the Roundabout in Edinburgh, FMP continues to be a champion and advocate for supporting artists to make daring and original work at the fringe.

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