Playwright and actor Matthew Zajac has worked as an actor for 42 years. He is Artistic Director of Dogstar, most recently directing The Stornoway Way by Kevin MacNeil and The Fallen Angels of the Moine by George Gunn. His other plays include The Sky Is Safe and an adaptation of James Robertson’s novel The Testament of Gideon Mack, due for production in 2025. Matthew has also worked with Sweden’s Riksteatern, Profilteatern and Vasterbottensteatern, Citizens Theatre Glasgow, Royal Exchange Theatre Manchester, Everyman and Playhouse Theatre Liverpool, Bristol Old Vic, Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh, Bush Theatre, The Young Vic, Half Moon Young People’s Theatre and Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith. Film and Television includes Happy Valley, State of Happiness, One of Us, Shetland, Still Game, We Were The Lucky Ones The Crucifixion, Valhalla Rising, And Violet, and A Lonely Place To Die. Matthew has also appeared in numerous radio plays for the BBC and is an experienced documentary narrator. A documentary film, Circling A Fox – the Story of The Tailor of Inverness, directed by Brian Ross, was broadcast by the BBC in 2021 and 2022. His best-selling book The Tailor of Inverness was published by Sandstone Press.

Director Ben Harrison is Co-Artistic Director of Scottish theatre company Grid Iron. He also works all over the world as a freelance director. Recent work includes South Bend and The Brunch Club (Grid Iron), A Game of Death and Chance (Enlightenment House for the National Trust for Scotland), The Buke of the Howlat (Findhorn Bay Arts Festival) and Let’s Inherit The Earth (Dogstar and Profilteatern, Sweden), Crude, The Devil's Larder, Letters Home, What Remains, Spring Awakening, Decky Does A Bronco, Barflies and Roam (Grid Iron), Factor 9 and The Sky Is Safe (Dogstar), Biding Time (Remix) and Music is Torture (Scottish Tours for Tromolo Productions) and The Tree of Knowledge (Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh). His production of Peter Pan toured the US for two years from 2010, visiting San Francisco, Costa Mesa, Atlanta, Chicago and Boston, and was revived in 2015. It has been seen by over a million people. Ben was Artistic Director of Muztheater in the Netherlands from 2004 to 2007, Associate Director of the Almeida Theatre 2000 to 2002, and was a NESTA Fellow from 2001 to 2005. He has taught site-responsive theatre in many countries, including Lebanon, Jordan, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal and South Africa. www.benharrison.info

“An emotionally charged and politically powerful masterpiece…The energy and chemistry between both performers, including Zajac himself, is hypnotising.” Edinburgh Festivals Magazine on The Sky Is Safe

“The show boasts two outstanding central performances, from Molly Innes as Antigone and – especially – Matthew Zajac as Creon.” The Independent on Antigone at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow.

“Matthew Zajac is outstanding.” The Observer on Don Carlos at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow and Edinburgh International Festival.

“How we cheered…very well-directed. By site-specific specialist Ben Harrison” The Independent on Peter Pan

“Spectacular… a show so timely in its theme, and so ambitious in scale…an unforgettable experience.” The Scotsman on Crude

“In a class of its own…a sensational experience.” The Herald on Roam

“Ben Harrison’s fluid and supple production” The Times on Spring Awakening

”One of the most anarchic, timely and memorable shows on the Fringe”. The Scotsman on Let’s Inherit the Earth

”Grid Iron, surely now one of the most sophisticated site specific theatre makers in Europe, never mind Scotland.” The Times on Barflies

“A triumph... A beautifully realised tale of the reality of survival in war-torn Eastern Europe… Matthew Zajac’s moving performance is a triumph of evocative staging and storytelling.” The Observer

“An ardent, deeply personal play…Compelling, impassioned…a fine actor.” The New York Times

“Matthew Zajac, compellingly pieces together his father's patchwork of truths and omissions, then methodically unravels it, in this taut odyssey that spans continents, decades, and even vaster zones of the heart still marked by war…” Village Voice (New York)

“A towering piece of work with a glorious performance by the author.” Sunday Independent (Ireland)

“A universal work of theatre.” Sunday Herald (Scotland)

“Don’t miss it.” Radio Adelaide

“Sometimes, the universal can be revealed by the particular…Precisely this wonder occurs when Matthew Zajac… takes to the stage.” Dagens Nyheter (Sweden)

“Zajac’s internationally acclaimed show remains as powerful as ever, all its elements of music and design in perfect tune. Ben Harrison’s direction superb, and the theme, of course, never grows old; because it is the pity of war…” The Scotsman

“Both familiar and unpredictable, challenging yet funny, epic but also profoundly moving.” The Stage

“Unbelievably moving and unexpected.” Misha Glenny, author and journalist.

In response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Finborough Theatre began the #VoicesFromUkraine #Українськіголоси #Ukrayinsʹkiholosy programming strand.
Online releases include Otvetka by Neda Nezhdana, He Who Opens The Door by Neda Nezhdana, The Peed-Upon Armored Personnel Carrier by Oksana Gritsenko, A Dictionary of Emotions in a Time of War by Yelena Astasyeva, A (Ukrainian) Midsummer Night’s Dream – Shakespeare’s play performed in Ukrainian, I Want To Go Home by Oksana Savchenko;  poems as part of the Pro-English Theatre of Ukraine's Stus-Festival 2024; interviews and responses to the war in Ukraine. All online releases are available on the Finborough Theatre YouTube channel, and available with subtitles on Scenesaver.

Live productions included Two Ukrainian Plays featuring Natal’ya Vorozhbit’s Take The Rubbish Out, Sasha in a double bill with Neda Nezhdana’s monologue Pussycat in Memory of Darkness, pairing Ukraine’s leading contemporary playwright together with a Ukrainian playwright making her UK debut, which played at the Finborough Theatre in August 2022. Pussycat in Memory of Darkness also returned for a solo full run in March 2023. In December 2022, Pussycat in Memory of Darkness became the first play performed in Ukraine by a foreign company since the Russian invasion, and has since toured to the United States, Portugal and Germany.