Douglas tells sparky stories from the department of Births, Deaths and Marriages.  Stories of commitment, loneliness, romance and loss.  His plays are empathetic and soulful.  They're often comic.  And broken hearted.

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There are recurring themes: sacrifice, betrayal, exclusion, grief; our responsibility to animals and the natural world; long-term relationships; race, class, control; booze, bands and aspiration.   

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His central characters tend to share a hope of redemption.  There’s a desire for renewal and rebirth. 

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His early work came from his small-town upbringing in Girvan, Ayrshire and was written for younger audiences, with characters in their teens and early twenties.  Now most of his characters are in their late forties, living in cities, dealing with the blurred shapes and sharp edges of the adult world.

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He writes for all scales: from tight studio dramas to shows with casts of over forty...from the books of mainstage musicals to one-person monologues.

 

​​​Douglas is a passionate supporter of new theatre.  He has taught playwriting in schools, theatres and universities.  He has been a dramaturg on countless productions and a friend and mentor to a generation of playwrights and directors. 

 

Playwriting Accolades

 

His most recent play, So Young, won a Fringe First, the Best Play Award at the Critics’ Awards Scotland (CATS) 2025 and The Hector MacMillan Award 2025 for Best Play as voted for by playwrights.  

 

He is the only playwright to have won the Best Play Award at the CATS twice.  The Sheriff of Kalamaki also took that prize in 2024.    

 

He was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Association of Scottish Literature in September 2025. 

 

His short play Fatbaws, for the National Theatre of Scotland, directed by and starring Peter Mullan, was filmed by the BBC, seen by over a million people and nominated for a Scottish BAFTA.  Promises Promises was nominated for a Drama Desk Award when it played in New York (under the title: The Promise) and The Mothership won The Brian Way Award for Best Play for Young People.  One of his earliest plays, Decky Does a Bronco, won a Fringe First, a Stage Award and many other prizes. A Respectable Widow Takes To Vulgarity was shortlisted for The Golden Pie Award (the best play staged at A Play A Pie and A Pint in its first ten years as voted for by the audience).

 

Other honours over the years include being the very first Playwriting Fellow of The Institute of the Advance Studies of Humanities (IASH) at Edinburgh University; Associate Playwright at The Traverse Theatre; Associate Playwright at Dundee Rep; Associate Playwright for the Playwrights Studio Scotland (twice) and a longlist nomination for The Sharpest Man in Britain for GQ Magazine. 

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​He lives in Glasgow with his wife and two daughters.