Restless Natives - The Musical, McRobert Arts Centre, Stirling University 14th May 2025

There have been a fair few cult-classic home-grown, heart-warming Scottish feel-good movies over the years. Gregory’s Girl is still the pick of the bunch, but there was also ‘That Sinking Feeling’, the bigger budget ‘Comfort & Joy’ in the 1980s, and later ‘The Angels’ Share’ and more recently ‘Our Ladies’.

For lovers of rock music, the jewel in the crown was always ‘Restless Natives’. The film, released in 1985, was not just a good-natured comedy caper but also a bromance and a romance with a side order of political and social satire. The icing on the cake was an atmospheric, largely instrumental sound-track by Big Country that perfectly captured the spirit of the ghostly legends sleeping under the green hills of home.

The actual music was not released at the time, other than as a couple of B-side tracks on 12” singles, but it did eventually appear as one continuous piece on the CD release of ‘Restless Natives & Rarities’ in 1998. This time, the film has been transformed into a musical by the addition of some carefully-curated original Big Country songs, plus a batch of witty new songs written by the original film’s script-writer Ninian Dunnett, together with musical theatre pro music-writer Tim Sutton. They truly have grown flowers in the desert with a set of tunes that fit in perfectly. I particularly enjoyed the song that rhymed ‘genitalia’ with ‘failure’ in the lyrics!

The show starts in the same way that ‘Our Ladies’ ended; with a choral rendition of ‘In a Big Country’ – of course it did! I saw the show in the excellent, intimate and very comfy McRobert Art Centre on the Stirling University campus at Bridge of Allan. As you would expect, and entirely fittingly, this is a comparatively low budget production without lavish set changes, but it is cleverly done, very effective and sets the scene appropriately. There is also a live band in the pit to perform the soundtrack.

The main characters are played by some of the country’s best home-grown theatrical talent and are instantly recognisable. The delightful Kirsty MacLaren slips into the Terri Lally role of Margot, while Kyle Gardiner plays Ronnie Wotherspoon (The Clown) with Finlay McKillop as his pal-with-a-conscience Will (The Wolfman). The show largely stays true to the original but with some subtle tweaks to enhance the story and keep it fresh and appropriate for a stage presentation.

The most obvious diversion from the original is the casting of Agent Bender. Bizarrely, the original movie part was graced by the instantly recognisable Hollywood actor Ned Beatty. Poor old Ned did some great work over many years and dozens of movies but is destined to always be primarily remembered as the “squeal like a pig, boy” from ‘Deliverance’. However, being bummed on-screen by in-bred rednecks is probably still not as embarrassing as the sight of him disguised in drag as a female Cotter’s Buses’ tour guide in ‘Restless Natives’. Here, his part has been trans-gendered into a female role and is expertly delivered by an actual American Broadway performer named Sarah Galbraith.

I can only comment from the perspective of someone who has loved the movie for a long time and is very familiar with it. I really enjoyed this show. I first saw the movie on its release whilst I was living in London. Me, my wife, and two friends were apparently the only Scottish folks in a small cinema off Leicester Square. We were hee-hawing to the point of incontinence from the start but the locals didn’t quite seem to get it to the same extent.

The musical is the same. The jokes are wonderful and the humour taps into that more-modern Still Game combination of Caledonian warmth and vulgarity; I don’t remember anyone in the original being referred to as “Little Miss Fanny Flaps”! The more recognisable jokes and skits from the original absolutely still hit the spot and are welcomed like old friends home from a trip to New Mexico, but younger folks and newbies will also definitely enjoy this show – it’s easy to follow and its big themes are as old as the hills and still relevant today.

As I mentioned, this is a comparatively low budget production but it represents a big bang for your buck with reasonably-priced tickets. The original movie was highly-rated on sites like Rotten Tomatoes, but while it remains a national treasure in Scotland, it never really achieved big success in other parts. I can only imagine that this will be the fate of the musical. As great as it is, I doubt Broadway and the West End are in its future but that’s not really the point – every Scots person will enjoy it and it should live on forever.

Having debuted in Perth, ‘Restless Natives – The Musical’ is on a limited run right now around Scotland, including dates at the re-vamped Leith Theatre in Edinburgh and Glasgow’s King’s Theatre. With warmth, humour, poignancy, good music and likeable characters that you can root for, this show is a delight.

Enjoy the Big Country and you should walk away entertained and proud of our wee country, its myths and legends, and its writing and performing talent.

21-24 His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen

29-31 Eden Court Empire, Inverness

7-22 Leith Theatre, Edinburgh

24-28 King’s Theatre, Glasgow