Written by Fringe First winning playwright Jack MacGregor, directed by John Byrne Award recipient Fraser Scott, and produced by NTS Producing Fellow Leah Byrne; Prophets will premiere at Assembly Roxy, 05 - 31 August 2026.
Prophets is a dark psychological thriller that explores the interplay between faith and cult, set on the remote and rocky outpost of Saint John. Prophets is about the limits of justice and the search for hope in a world of darkness.
When Kerris, a researcher, arrives on a tiny British Overseas Territory, she finds a colonial outpost gripped in the thrall of a charismatic and growing religious sect. As memory and nightmares mix, and the ‘Day of Paradise' draws closer, Kerris begins to unravel, caught in the riptide of this forgotten colony on the edge of the world.
Originally platformed at Page 2 Stage and Capital Theatres Open@TheStudio Scratch Night, Prophets has already received the 2026 ART Award from Assembly Festival which is awarded annually to support new Scottish writing and creativity at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Open to any Scottish-based independent theatre company or performance practitioner, previous winners include Zoë Bullock (Gracie and the Start of the End of World (Again), 2024) Vlad Butucea (Silkworm, 2022), and Jen McGregor and Flavia D'Avila (Heaven Burns, 2018).
It is esteemed company for a creative team who promise to be some of the next generation of Scotland's best theatre makers.
Originally from the Scottish Highlands, Jack MacGregor's previous work has been awarded a Fringe First, a Scottish Arts Club Leading Light Award, a Summerhall Lustrum Prize. Recent collaborators include Traverse Theatre, BBC Scotland, National Theatre of Scotland, Strangetown, and A Play, a Pie, and a Pint.
Fraser Scott is an award-winning theatre director from Paisley, and was the Resident Assistant Director at Octagon Theatre, Bolton. Other directing credits include: Rep Stripped 2026 (Dundee Rep Theatre), Fish (A Play, A Pie & A Pint), Athens of the North (Scottish Storytelling Centre) & Common Tongue (National Tour). Associate Credits include The Glass Menagerie (Dundee Rep Theatre).
Leah Byrne is a playwright, producer, dramaturg and composer and is a current Producing Fellow with National Theatre Scotland. Having shifted to producing via BAFTA Rocliffe's New Writing Competition, she now works broadly with new work and adaptations across a range of scales and formats, fronting a dramaturgy-led approach to creative producing.
At once intimate and unsettling, Prophets draws the audience into a fractured world where belief and power collide. As Kerris is pulled deeper into the island's inner workings, the play exposes the quiet mechanisms of control that underpin both faith and empire, and the personal cost of resisting them. Unflinching in its portrayal of psychological manipulation and moral compromise, Prophets is a tense, atmospheric new work that lingers long after the final moment.
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