Our Show

When a group of four teenage boys (all played by female-presenting actors) get lost in the wilderness on their Duke of Edinburgh trip, they feud, flirt and fornicate in a way that forces us (and them) to ask – is there any hope for the modern man? 

Upon getting stranded, school rugby captain Lewis appoints himself leader of the pack and vows to lead his peers to safety. Now, all he has to do is try not to fall in love with his childhood best friend Kieran. Or be converted into a misogynist by Reddit-enthusiast Baxter. Or accidentally feed magic mushrooms to the class nerd Peter. What could go wrong? 

As the group begins to lose sight of civilisation and Lewis’ true feelings for Kieran become harder to hide, he is forced to question everything he thought he knew about girls, rugby and his place in the world. Can the boys escape the woods and adapt to life as modern men?

Created by a team of solely student theatre-makers, Lads of the Flies is a bitingly funny satire of the performativity of gender and the artifice of patriarchal masculinity. Utilising elements of metatheatre and innovative cross-gender casting, the play comedically re-examines its iconic source material through a radically queer and feminist lens. Throughout the 50-minute runtime, a slew of current pop-cultural references provide razor-sharp insight into the ever-relevant themes of puberty, sexuality and what it means to be a man in the modern world.

About Us

Written and directed by Grace Donaldson and assistant directed by Sophie Gattis, the play was first performed at a new writing festival at the University of Glasgow in 2024. Dating back to at least 1922, Student Theatre at Glasgow is the oldest and largest student theatre society in Scotland. STAG broke out of Glasgow in 1957 with their first performance at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival; a tradition that has since continued with recently sold-out shows; ‘God Ltd.’ (2017), ‘Ah Dinnae Ken’ (2018) and last year’s five-star reviewed ‘The Wönderful Everyday’ (2023).

Your Support

As a Glasgow-based student society, taking a show to the Edinburgh Fringe is the most valuable opportunity we offer our members. However, the increasingly unaffordable nature of the festival combined with the fact that we receive little to no funding from our University means that we are struggling to cover our basic venue and accommodation costs. Supporting us would ensure that the Edinburgh Fringe remains a sustainable opportunity for future aspiring theatre-makers at the University of Glasgow and allow us a budget for publicity so we can properly promote our show.