The Borrowed Room is a new play from local writer Steven Maxwell, staged as a script-in-hand performance at Summerhall. Graham (Sean Connor) lives in a small coastal town somewhere in Scotland, and he’s lived there all his life. A journalist for the local paper, he’s working on a series of articles featuring interviews with one-time residents to find out why they’ve since left the town. Ewan (Craig Hunter) has come back to visit family and Graham seizes his opportunity to find out why he left in what turns out to be a bold move on Graham’s part as the unfolding narrative reveals.

The two men meet in the library, a symbol of safety from Ewan’s school days. Gradually, we learn why Ewan left town quite as quickly as he did – and why he’s never contemplated moving back. The script explores the stigma attached to queer identity and the social forces that shape expectations of masculinity. Alongside the narrowed horizons that can result from growing up in a remote rural community, the script also skates through the repercussions of pejorative language in the playground, problematic attitudes upheld by some members of the Boys Brigade and the harrowing impact of conversion therapy.

There’s a lot packed into this pacey 45 minutes – small town bigotry, social norms, collective expectations and individual responsibility. This is a script with huge heart, compassion and empathy. Maxwell’s done his homework and the after-show discussion demonstrated the depth of his commitment to honouring the stories he’s been told. Maxwell’s also an academic and a researcher and maybe has leant into honouring the lived experiences of those whose stories informed this work, slightly at the expense of the drama in the current script draft. But plans are afoot to develop the script so it’ll be fascinating to see how the story unfolds.

As a staged reading, the production is short on set, costumes are fit for purpose and the soundscape could do with a bit more polish. But Sam Pitcher‘s direction is zippy and makes great use of the compact space. Connor confronts his character’s troubling decisions with contained dignity. Hunter’s Ewan is majestic in his graceful acceptance that he might never find a place where he feels truly at home. And the timing of this development performance, bracketing the Edinburgh Pride weekend, could not be better to platform these shamefully seldom heard stories.