With a cast of six, this new contemporary play explores the need for love and the powerful forces at play behind random acts of violence. Set across two decades, it opens in 2006 Glasgow where troubled teen Kayleigh escapes her abusive mother through her friendship with Zoe. As the two flirt, play dare and fantasise about running away together to the Isle of Muck, the adults in their lives intervene – for right or for wrong – and lead them towards disastrous consequences. Drawing on extensive research into children who have committed violent acts, Monster asks can past mistakes ever be forgiven or forgotten, and if those raised by monsters can ever heal or are fated to become monsters themselves.

Writer Abigail Hood said, “The starting point for Monster was a desire to understand what it is that causes a child to commit an appalling act of violence and, having done so, how they go on to live the rest of their life. Such questions led to extensive research into the lives of Mary Bell, John Venables, Robert Thompson and other minors whose abhorrent acts of violence have shocked the world. I found myself looking at a vicious circle of abuse and the impact of abuse upon young people. This brought me to ask if / how, as a society, we can prevent such things from happening and question if we are failing our young people. It is my aim that Monster keeps us asking these questions, in the hope that other families can be spared the grief inflicted upon them by such acts and save the children who commit them from themselves.”