Review: Future Acts | NTS National Theatre of Scotland with Shakehaus and BBC Scotland

A programme of six short films, imagining what the future may look like In Scotland, premieres in cinemas this month, ahead of launching on BBC online platforms in 2027. Future Acts, from the National Theatre of Scotland and BBC Scotland, brings together celebrated Scottish theatre-makers and filmmakers to tell the stories. Read my review below.

Future Acts ★★★★☆

Review: 1 October 2026 | Glasgow Film Theatre

As part of the National Theatre of Scotland's 20th anniversary year, they have partnered with BBC Scotland and Shakehaus Productions to create a programme of six short films that blur the lines between theatre and cinema.

A hybrid team of Scottish theatre makers and filmmakers created Future Acts, with stories written by leading Scottish playwrights. Each one imagines Scotland at some time in the future, and their themes vary wildly from AI to the climate crisis, dating and cloning.

The six 10-minute shorts run back-to-back in a one-hour programme that premiered in cinemas this weekend, but that will become available to audiences via BBC digital platforms in 2027 (free to access online). The films are an interesting mix of genres, from absurd comedy to terrifying drama, but each does a remarkable job of presenting an entertaining story that gives audiences a glimpse of what life in a future Scotland could look like.

One script, one day, one location, two actors

Imagine Charlie Brooker's dark comedy TV series Black Mirror, but each episode is only 10 minutes long, has been written by and stars many artists whose names and faces you will recognise from the Scottish stage and TV screen, and has been developed under the tightest of parameters with a shoestring budget, and that is Future Acts. Unlike the Channel 4, and now Netflix, TV budget that Black Mirror boasts, the teams behind each of the Future Acts short films were limited by a very restrictive scope that included just one single day of filming, in a single location and with a maximum of 2 actors.

James Ley's Bed to the Future is set in a furniture shop where a young couple (Martin Quinn and Jay Newton) try out a prototype bed with the help of Marc Mackinnon's robot vacuum cleaner assistant. Hilarious and absurd, this film offers a lighthearted start to the suite of six stories.

Hope Dickson Leigh's Still Alive sees the brilliant Keith Fleming awake in a younger body and struggle to convince those around him that it is a good thing; while Uma Nada-Rajah's Optimum follows Anna Russell Martin and Ross Mann as they meet in a Glasgow beer garden for a first date where all the guesswork and risk have been removed. Optimum feels like one of the more plausible pieces, with the familiar location and bustling public background, alongside convincing performances from the two actors helping to ground the story in reality. This futuristic short could easily be set in the very near future, and that makes it even more alarming.

Every film is captivating and thought-provoking. And if you don't like one of the films, the one that comes along next will be completely different, not only in theme but in tone. The creatives who worked on Future Acts worked in silos, aware only of their individual production and not of what the other five writers and directors were concocting. Fascinating then how they each interpreted the brief of a 'future-facing story set in Scotland' in such different ways. The result is a varied programme of shorts that complement each other and that strike a satisfying balance between solemnity and lively good humour.

A blurring of the lines between theatre and film

Kieran Hurley's Smoke is the most stylish and most theatrical of the six shorts, featuring a mesmerising dancer, Nicolette McComack, directed by Rianne White and with a voiceover from Shirley Manson. It's also the darkest and heaviest piece in terms of content, and the one which will resonate with me. The impactful visuals of a dancer gliding through a dark auditorium, against a soundtrack of Hurley's powerful words, is haunting.

At the opposite end of the glamour scale, Natali McCleary and Joefa Celestin's Un-static takes place entirely within a tiny, run-down caravan where a unicorn, the glorious Maureen Carr, helps James Dawoud understand his life and purpose.

Lesley Hart's Broth see Carmen Pierracini as a TV news reporter while Ryan J Mackay assists from behind the camera. Sally Reid directs as we watch the TV anchor's career threaten to disappear along with the eroding coastline.

A creative blurring of the lines between theatre and film, these shorts are individually entertaining and imaginative stories, but as a programme they present a wonderful hybrid project that challenges how we consume theatre. With London's National Theatre Live programme enabling worldwide audiences the chance to see West End theatre in cinemas, this new project from NTS and BBC Scotland will hopefully similarly pave the way for more accessible theatre that can be consumed in cinemas, from home or from any location we can dream of in the future. The possibilities are thrilling.

MORE: Read more about Future Acts and the creatives and concepts behind each of the six films here. Future Acts films, cast and creatives