Outrun
A young woman finds herself washed up back home on the Scottish archipelago of Orkney, trying to rebuild her life after a decade of addiction.
The life she has left behind in London, with all its intoxicating temptations, has pushed her to the point of destruction. Now there is wildness of a different form – an alluring wilderness that she must learn to navigate.
Speaking to the impact of isolation and loneliness and – ultimately – the resilience of people, Amy Liptrot's bestselling memoir The Outrun has been adapted for the stage by Stef Smith. Directed by Vicky Featherstone, and co-produced by The Royal Lyceum Edinburgh and Edinburgh International Festival, it premiered at the 2024 Festival.
Amy Liptrot’s The Outrun was a Sunday Times bestseller, BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week, won the Wainwright Prize and the PEN Ackerley Prize, and was shortlisted for the Wellcome and Ondaatje Prizes.
'One of Scotland's boldest chroniclers of contemporary women's lives' The Stage on Stef Smith
'A lyrical, brave memoir… compelling' Guardian on The Outrun
Stef Smith's plays include Enough, Swallow, Girl in the Machine (all Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh), Nora : A Doll's House (Citizens Theatre, Glasgow; revived at the Young Vic, London), Human Animals (Royal Court Theatre, London), and Road Kill (for which she won an Olivier Award).