New festival play to feature Succession star Brian Cox
The Edinburgh International Festival has announced that Scottish stage and screen star Brian Cox will perform in a major new play exploring the downfall of Royal Bank of Scotland boss Fred Goodwin.
Behold the rise, fall and fail of the biggest bank in the world – The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). At the helm is Fred “The Shred” Goodwin, armed with an unshakeable belief in the wisdom of the ‘founder of modern capitalism’, Adam Smith. The once prudent RBS soars and then plummets, placing Scotland at the heart of the global financial crash of 2008.
Make It Happen by James Graham - the award-winning writer who has brought Margaret Thatcher, Dominic Cummings and Rupert Murdoch to the stage and screen - will recall how RBS was brought to the brink of ruin at the height of the global financial crisis in 2008.
Set in Edinburgh, Make It Happen sees legendary actor Brian Cox return to the Scottish stage for the first time in a decade as Adam Smith, the ghost of fiscal past. Written by James Graham (Sherwood, Dear England), hailed as one of the most influential writers of our time and directed by the award-winning Andrew Panton. This bitingly funny new satire delves into the unchecked growth, spiralling greed and nail-biting hubris that brought the world’s economy to its knees.
The show, which will realise a long-time ambition of Cox to play the man known as "the father of modern economics," will preview at Dundee Rep in July, where the Succession star began his stage career in 1961 as a 15-year-old, before running at the Festival Theatre during the first week of the Edinburgh International Festival.