'Your feet make the bridge creak as you wander and you wonder What if? What if?' Esme is at an all-time low, struggling with her studies and her art. Standing on a bridge, contemplating something she won't be able to take back, she meets Harris, a young chef whose own life is shifting beneath his feet. They may never see each other again, but in that moment their lives begin to change direction. Set along the waters of the Clyde, Water Colour is a beautifully observed and tender play about what happens when we choose to reach out – and how even the briefest meeting can become a turning point. Milly Sweeney's play won the 2024-25 St Andrews Playwriting Award, was named Best New Play at the 2026 Critics' Award for Theatre in Scotland, and saw Milly Sweeney named Best Writer at the 2025 Stage Debut Awards. It was presented by Byre Theatre in partnership with Playwrights' Studio Scotland and Pitlochry Festival Theatre, and first performed at Pitlochry and St Andrews in 2025, before a run at the Traverse Theatre during the 2026 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
"'An astonishing debut… Sweeney invests Harris and Esme's stories with such authentic detail, such frank humour and such emotional intelligence that their mirrored journeys feel raw, real and mightily moving… a genuine gem'"
The Stage
"'Powerful… a play that comes across as a vital dispatch from the front line of the mental health crisis among young people… a memorable strand of pure poetry'"
Scotsman
"'An elegant, expertly handled study of depression... a clever piece of writing, brisk and confident, with a lightness of touch'"
