Dear Billy - A Love Letter to the Big Yin returns in 2024

Dear Billy - A Love Letter to the Big Yin returns in 2024!: Dear Billy Production Photos - Photo credit Sally Jubb 07
National Theatre of Scotland’s acclaimed, sell-out production, celebrating Scotland’s most loved comedian, Billy Connolly, set to return to Scotland in 2024, including a run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

DEAR BILLY  
A Love Letter to the Big Yin  
From the People of Scotland  
Written and performed by Gary McNair, Directed by Joe Douglas  

Music performed and composed by Simon Liddell and Jill O’Sullivan, Set and Costume designed by Claire Halleran, Lighting design by Kate Bonney and Simon Hayes, Dramaturgy by Joe Douglas.

Touring Scotland in May with Edinburgh Festival Fringe run in August 2024

Opening at His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen then touring to Pavilion Theatre, Glasgow; Eden Court, Inverness with a two-week run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2024

In 2023 National Theatre of Scotland’s production of Dear Billy undertook a 17 venue Scotland-wide tour, reaching over 8000 people. Originally announced to mark Billy Connolly’s 80th birthday year, the production was enthusiastically received by audiences, selling-out at venues across Scotland, garnering a wealth of positive reviews and due to popular demand is now back on tour again in 2024.

Dear Billy - Campaign Image - Landscape - photography credit Tommy Ga Ken Wan
There’s a guy. You know him. You know… big hair, wee beard, glasses, talks like that. You know? You know. The guy…The Big Yin.

Billy Connolly needs no introduction. He is a national treasure. From the shipyards of the Clydeside to his trailblazing and extraordinary stage and movie exploits, he is woven into Scottish culture.  

Everyone has a Billy story. An expert team of story gatherers has created a collection of these moving and hilarious tales. Gary McNair, one of Scotland’s most renowned theatre-makers, has turned these stories into a special show celebrating the Big Yin and what he means to the people of Scotland. 

The production will tour in May 2024 opening at His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen before touring to Pavilion Theatre, Glasgow and Eden Court in Inverness with a two-week run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August 2024. Further venues and dates will be announced in 2024.

Dear Billy is a unique touring production that evolved on the road. It travelled the length and breadth of Scotland in 2023, visiting local theatres, arts and community centres gathering stories along the way which were woven into the show as the tour progressed.  

Gary McNair is hitting the road once more with two musicians. Audience members are welcomed to share their own Billy stories, with the possibility of those stories making it into the performance. Each show offers a unique chance for audiences to laugh, sing, and celebrate the man and the legend.

“The perfect tribute to a man who has left his gloriously indelible mark, not only on the art of stand-up comedy, but on the culture of Scotland.” The National

“What emerges is a brilliant portrait not only of the Big Yin as others see him, but of his importance as a cultural touchstone to many Scots” The Times

Dear Billy is written and performed by leading Scottish theatre-maker Gary McNair whose recent work includes the acclaimed Nae Expectations, a fresh take on the Dickens classic for the Tron Theatre; Ugly! A Cinderella Story for Cumbernauld Theatre Company and a new adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Jekyll and Hyde featuring a solo performance from Forbes Masson which will be at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh in January 2024.

Dear Billy Rehearsal Photography - Photo credit Eoin Carey 06
The production is directed by Joe Douglas whose work for National Theatre of Scotland includes The Cheviot, The Stag and the Black, Black Oil, Dear Scotland and Associate Director for Black Watch. Joe previously collaborated with Gary on McGonagall’s Chronicles (Which Will Be Remembered for a Very Long Time).

Musicians re-joining Gary on the road are Simon Liddell whose work for theatre includes The Domestic (Scenes for Survival/National Theatre of Scotland) and McGonagall’s Chronicles (Which Will Be Remembered for a Very Long Time) and Jill O’Sullivan who writes and performs across the worlds of popular music, theatre and dance.

Gary McNair said:   

“It was a real honour to get the opportunity to make Dear Billy last year. The creative team were a dream, and we couldn’t have been happier with the response from audiences up and down the country.

I also loved that people would share their personal stories about the Big Yin with us as we travelled. Both performing the show and receiving these stories felt like the perfect way to celebrate the special place that Billy Connolly holds in the hearts of the Scottish people.

The fact that there's been such a hunger for the show to return and that we are able to do it so soon is wonderful. I can't wait for us to get the band back together and take the show back on the road to head out across Scotland again to meet new audiences.”

Dear Billy PR 02 - Gary McNair - Photo credit Eoin Carey
Billy Connolly, or, the Big Yin, whom this show is dedicated to, is Scotland’s most beloved comedian, with an impressive career as a stand-up, actor, writer and musician spanning more than 50 years. In 2022, Connolly was awarded the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement.  

Gary McNair is a Glasgow based writer and performer. He is a three-time Fringe First winner and has produced work for and with many of Scotland’s major theatre companies. His plays have been translated and performed all over the world, from Germany to Japan, from New York to New Zealand. Gary’s work includes A Gambler’s Guide to Dying, Square Go (co-written with Kieran Hurley); McGonagall’s Chronicles Which Will Be Remembered for a Very Long Time, Donald Robertson Is Not a Stand-Up Comedian, After The Cuts, Letters to Morrissey and Locker Room Talk. These plays are published by Methuen.   

Joe Douglas is a theatre director, playwright and performer. Joe’s career began as Trainee Director at the National Theatre of Scotland from 2007 to 2008. He was the Artistic Director of Live Theatre from 2018 to 2020, and before that, Associate Artistic Director of Dundee Rep and Co-Artistic Director of the Utter touring company. His work includes Clear White Light, Death of a Salesman, Spoiling, The BFG, George’s Marvellous Medicine, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Educating Ronnie, Letters Home, The Red Shed, Stand By and The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil.   

Join the conversation: #DearBilly