Everything you need to know about the new Restless Natives musical

The National

28-04-2025

Michael Hoffman has a score to settle and the Hollywood director has vowed he will achieve this across the theatres of Scotland this summer. 'It's a chance for us all to go back and reclaim our past,' says the actor, writer and director, who has returned for a second bite of a Scottish story that's become a cult classic status since its release 40 years ago.
'It was upsetting when it wasn't well received at first. It was painful for us. But it was triumphant for us in certain ways, too.' Now the triumph is the curtain going up on a new telling of a story he left behind in 1985, as Restless Natives: The Musical takes to the road around Scotland. In the mid-1980s, having been inspired by his experience of Robert Redford's Sundance film development lab in Utah, Hoffman got together with some of his young mates and launched a national screenwriter's competition in the UK.
One of the short scripts they received was from Ninian Dunnett, telling the story of a pair of Edinburgh lads who, in the midst of the hopelessness of 1980s economic depression, buy a pair of masks and rob tour buses. Producer David Puttnam picked it as the winner and the short project was developed into a feature-length film by Hoffman and cohorts and released in 1985.
'It was one of the easiest, most seamless roads between discovering a piece of material then making it that I've ever had in my life,' says Hoffman, whose Hollywood credits since include One Fine Day with Michelle Pfeiffer and A Midsummer Night's Dream with Christian Bale and Dominic West.
'But it had a pretty rocky start. Reviews were not good at first, partly because we were hot on the heels of Bill Forsyth's movies. We certainly weren't trying to make another Bill Forsyth movie but there were similar things going on tonally, perhaps in particular to That Sinking Feeling.
'But the film went on to find fans in America and Scotland and all over the world. It started to reclaim a position for ourselves. It was still a long journey to get to the point when James McAvoy said to me the reason he'd do my film The Last Station is because he loved Restless Natives when he was a kid. Or Gerry Butler turning up at a party and saying he wasn't worthy to shake my hand because Restless Natives was his favourite film. Or Jack Black wanting to remake it in America. It has had this long, crazy life.'
(Image: Restless Natives Musical) The latest step in that crazy life sees the caper adapted for theatre as a stage musical, featuring – as the film did – the music of Big Country, with the production team from the flick bringing it to the stage. The original film written by Ninian Dunnett featured relative unknowns Vincent Friell and John Mullaney alongside bona fide movie star Ned Beatty. A lifetime on, Hoffman has co-written the book for the stage show starring Kirsty MacLaren, Kyle Gardiner, Finlay McKillop and Alan McHugh. Five decades later, it will play to audiences for whom many of the themes will resonate as clearly as they would have done with those who saw it at the time.
He says: 'It's the story of two under-employed kids in Edinburgh who feel like their lives are bereft of possibility. One decides he has to take his chance, and they go out as The Clown and The Wolfman and rob tourist coaches. What was an insane scheme leads them to international popularity and they become these Robin Hood bandits who capture the imagination of the whole world. It's a romance and a bromance. And it's about growing up.
'It's also that basic notion about identity and self-respect and finding a way forward towards a dream that you have or a possibility that you see. That never goes away. It's a fundamentally aspirational story and an aspirational story is timeless.
(Image: Restless Natives Musical) 'In Thatcher's Britain people felt really at risk up here. And I think the questions in that are things young people are asking now: is there a world for me? I think that still really plays. What makes it universal is that it's an underdog story about people who need to reclaim their self-respect and ask for a little bit of dignity from the world. That theme and idea operates in every relationship in the movie. And I think that operates on some level for Scotland, too. It's a movie about reclaiming your identity.'
The revival of interest in the film has, he admits, been enhanced by the podcast of the same name but also the enduring love for the band whose music formed the soundtrack. Hoffman says: 'The crossover between Big Country lovers and the film has also been a massive injection of energy. When the band play the theme tune from the film everybody really comes alive. It has become a real stalwart set piece in their concerts.
'I always loved Big Country. I had their first album early on and I wanted them to do the music for Restless Natives because of the spirit of the music they were making. It really made sense with what the movie was about. We thought it was a way to distinguish the film from everything else in the landscape.'
The band, led by Dunfermline's Stuart Adamson, were at the height of their powers in the mid-1980s, and created epic soundscapes for Hoffman's film, immediately identifiable as their own. Adamson tragically died 16 years after the film's release but Hoffman believes his sound and spirit have flavoured the new show, which draws on the Big Country catalogue, including a spine-tingling a capella version of one of their biggest hits.
'We all have ups and downs, especially in the life of a rock band such as Big Country and all the changes they go through. But doing this again has reminded us all of why we're doing any of this in the first place: dreaming big.'
Restless Natives The Musical is at Perth Theatre until May 10; Macrobert Arts Centre, Stirling, May 14-17; His Majesty's Theatre, Aberdeen, May 21-24; Eden Court, Inverness, May 29 – June 1; Leith Theatre, Edinburgh June 7-22; King's Theatre, Glasgow June 24-28.
restlessnativesthemusical.com