THEY'RE JUST SMALL TOWN (NORTHERN) LADS to Return to Edinburgh Fringe

They're Just Small Town (Northern) Lads will come to Edinburgh Fringe. Performances will run at Summerhall (Anatomy Lecture Theatre), 1 Summerhall, Edinburgh, EH9 1PL Thursday 6th August - Sunday 16th August 2026, 19:15.

From acclaimed North-west artist, writer and performer Nathan Jonathan (Hollyoaks, Doctor Who), They’re Just Small Town (Northern) Lads is a bold and deeply personal piece set in a small Northern town in the Y2K era of the early 2000s, created from lived experience from working class roots. Told through a haze of memory, drenched in nostalgia and sharp humour, it is a look at growing up and boyhood. The show explores the forces that shape us as we grow up, the expectations we inherit and the choices we make about who we become. At its heart lies one deceptively simple question: what makes a man?

The show follows a mixed-race teenage boy caught between two contrasting models of masculinity: a volatile, drug dealing father and a gentle Windrush generation grandfather. Between them sits the pressure of small-town Northern life, where boys quickly learn there is a version of manhood they are expected to embody and how those expectations are passed down through generations, often without question. When he is uprooted to another town, he quickly learns the unwritten rules: who the hard lads are, what to say on MSN Messenger and how to pass as a “proper” lad.

Following the success of his acclaimed Fringe debut A Small Town Northern Tale, Jonathan returns with a newly developed and more ambitious work that examines class, belonging and the lasting impact of the men who shape us. Yet beneath the humour and nostalgia lies a deeper exploration of the expectations placed upon boys and the consequences of trying to fit into a mould that was never made for them.

Directed by Amanda Huxtable (Nine Night), movement direction by Kate Valentine Crisp (FLUSH) with dramaturgy by Owen Nicholls (Love Unscripted, Perfect Timing), the show is a heartfelt, funny and thought-provoking exploration of our communities, rooted in lived experience. At a time when conversations around masculinity and boyhood feel increasingly urgent, it explores the defining moments when young men begin to decide who they want to become.

Nathan Jonathan comments, I wasn't interested in telling audiences what to think about masculinity. I wanted to open a window into the world I, and so many men like me, grew up in. I wanted to shine a light on the pressure boys face to fit a certain mould and how easily that mould can shape the men they become before they even realise it. By telling this story, I hope people can better understand how some boys become the men they are and how close I came to becoming someone very different. The world and technology may have changed since the early 2000s, but many of those pressures remain. This show invites audiences into a truthful version of small town life, asking them to draw their own conclusions and, hopefully, have a few laughs along the way.

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