An Erskine woman is getting ready for the premiere of her new play inspired by her dad’s childhood in Renfrew.
Eilidh Loan is just 24 but she’s already an award-winning actress and writer with a number one movie on Netflix, A Castle for Christmas, under her belt.
But next on her busy agenda is the play, Moorcroft, which is on at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow and comes straight from the heart.
She told the Express: “I started writing this about seven years ago. My dad would tell me all these stories about his life growing up in Renfrew and I found them so interesting.
“I was told at theatre school to write my own stuff so I started writing about my dad and based these characters on things he used to tell me.
“My dad is amazing, he’s such a great storyteller. We used to drive down to London and back and I’d be writing down the stories he’s told me.
“That years later I’m now telling the stories he told me, I’m absolutely thrilled. I’m so proud of my dad.”
Eilidh’s dad Garry, 54, who’s a tiler, mum Karen and little sister Erin, 17, all still live in Erskine and are looking forward to seeing Moorcroft next month.
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The play is set in the 80s in a working class Scottish town. It follows a group of young lads in search of an escape from their working class lives. But can playing football save them from the challenges they face and make them the men they want to be?
Rehearsals start on Monday and Eilidh said she knows how lucky she is to be able to bring her show to the stage after live shows were hit so badly during the pandemic.
She’s also keen to appeal to people who’ve maybe never been to the theatre before.
“One of my things is for more boys and girls to see this is normal, that people from their background get to do movies or plays,” she said.
“Even though people come from a working class background it doesn’t mean it’s not for them.
“I hope people come to see Moorcroft who’ve maybe never been to a play before.”
Eilidh was born in Renfrew but moved to Erskine and went to Barsail Primary and Park Mains High School before pursuing her love of acting at Dance School Scotland in Knightstood.
She spent three years at the Guilford School of Acting and won the Alan Bates Award in 2018 for the most promising actor in the final year of drama school.
Her first movie was A Castle for Christmas, starring Brooke Shields, which was a massive hit on Netflix last month.
She said: “I used to go to Robbie Park in Renfrew with my gran and run around and act like everything was my film set.
“I sat down at Christmas to watch A Castle for Christmas with my family and it was the most watched thing on Netflix.
“Me and my dad just looked at each other like, ‘this is mental!’
“What you imagine yourself doing as a little kid and then I was sitting in our house and that happened. It was lovely to share that with them.”
• Moorcroft is on at the Tron Theatre Glasgow from February 17 to March 5, written and directed by Eilidh Loan. For more information and tickets, go to www.tron.co.uk/shows/moorcroft/
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