AN UP and coming actor from Port Glasgow has landed the starring role in a hard-hitting show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Craig Anthony-Ralston — who gave up his studies in aeronautical engineering to pursue his acting ambitions — hopes his role in the gritty play ‘A Game of Soldiers’ will be his big break.

The 24-year-old, from Glenhuntly Terrace, is now in rehearsals for the show, which runs at the The Lauriston Halls in Edinburgh from 1-23 August.

Craig told the Tele: “This is a huge break for me.

“I love being on stage in front of a live audience.

“There is not a feeling like that in the world.

“It is the reason I got into acting.” The show, which also stars Atta Yaqub — who shot to fame when he was cast in Ken Loach’s film Ae Fond Kiss — is a social and political drama about the morality of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Craig plays Andy — a young man who joins the army and is sent to fight.

He said: “The character I play is brought up with all these beliefs about the army, as his grandfather was in the army.

“But when he gets out to Iraq and Afghanistan, he starts to doubt all these beliefs as the atrocities that he sees takes their toll on his mind and he has a breakdown.

“It’s a hard-hitting piece of theatre but it also has some dark humour too.” Craig, who previously worked at Cafe Balfe in Greenock, says the role will be mentally demanding.

He says: “To get into the mindset of Andy, it will be draining but it will be worthwhile in the end.

“The stage we’re perfoming on is also a challenge as it is a circle in the middle of the room, so the audience can see everything.

“It don’t find it daunting though — I’m just excited.” Since graduating with a degree in acting from Queen Margaret University last year, Craig has starred in Pink! The Musical with Hopscotch Theatre Company.

He has also appeared in highly acclaimed show The Gates, a musical set in 1950s London, as well as in Jack and the Beanstalk, the family panto at the £10m Beacon Arts Centre.

Craig, who is also set to star in a hotly-tipped comedy entitled I.Q YOU, which is to be filmed in Greenock, added: “Performing in the panto at the Beacon was a great experience as I got the chance to work with a great cast, including some of the cast of River City.” Looking to the future, Craig hopes to break into TV and film.

He said: “I’ll aim for the stars.

“I would love to do TV or a big film in Hollywood, so fingers crossed.” Craig was keen to thank his family for all their support, including his mum and dad Geraldine and Ian Millar and his four brothers Ian, 41, Barrie, 29, Brian, 35, and Chris, 30, a former Morton footballer who now plays for St Johnstone.

For more information about A Game of Soldiers, which is written by Scottish BAFTA New Talent Award nominee Joe McArdle, visit www.agameofsoldiers.com or go to the Facebook page.