GLASGOW actor David Hayman is in line for a prestigious award for his role in a hardhitting play about sectarianism.

The Guilt and Still Game star has been nominated in the Outstanding Performance category at the CATS (Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland).

He played Eric, an increasingly unhinged man who believes his five-week-old granddaughter is the then Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, in the Tron Theatre’s production of Cyprus Avenue.

In an exclusive interview with the Glasgow Times before the play's Scottish premiere in Glasgow, David said Eric was a "humdinger of a role."

Andy Arnold, who directed the play, is in the running for the Best Director award.

The awards will be presented on June 11 in Edinburgh by River City star Grant Stott and BAFTA-winning actor Shauna MacDonald.

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More than 120 productions including 83 new plays were eligible for the 2023 awards. Glasgow-based National Theatre of Scotland won 12 nominations across seven of the nine award categories including two nominations for Best Production.

May Sumbwanyambe’s drama Enough of Him about the slave Joseph Knight, which was co-produced by the National Theatre of Scotland and Pitlochry Festival Theatre, has received six nominations.

Ramesh Meyyappan’s Love Beyond, (Act of Remembrance) - co-produced by Raw Material and Vanishing Point - which raised awareness of the impact of dementia in the deaf community, has received five nominations.

CATS co-convenor Joyce McMillan said: “These are not the easiest of times for theatres anywhere in Britain; but it only takes a glance at the 2023 CATS shortlists to see the magnificent, challenging and searching form in which Scottish theatre has emerged from the pandemic crisis. The range and vividness of the work created this year has been thrilling.”