A play about a violent Glasgow upbringing is being lined up for a series of dates in North America.

Six And A Tanner, which began life in 2006 at Oran Mor's lunchtime theatre series, A Play, A Pie, And A Pint, will head over the Atlantic next April.

Actor David Hayman, who played Detective Chief Superintendent Mike Walker in TV police series Trial And Retribution, is the star of the one-man play, which looks set to be performed as part of Tartan Week in New York.

Drumchapel-born Hayman will revive his role as "Joe".

Six And A Tanner's storyline about a young boy physically abused by his father in the 1950s has been staged in Barlinnie, Greenock and Shotts jails, as well as Polmont Young Offenders' Institution.

After receiving backing from Choose Life, the suicide prevention charity, the hour-long production will tour the Highlands and islands in the autumn.

Each performance of the play, written by actor and playwright Rony Bridges, ends with a question and answer session with the actor and the writer.

Rony Bridges said: "So many people walk around with this facade and deny a lot of things in their upbringing that happened to them.

"People have said to me, 'It's a wonder you didn't kill yourself'.

"We had a woman who came up to David in tears after one show and said, 'Thank you', because she was able to tell her husband all about her childhood – she had kept it all secret.

"There is a real resonance with people."

The play is being staged as part of Glasgow's West End Festival programme and is on tonight at Oran Mor, with proceeds going to Spirit Aid, Hayman's humanitarian relief charity.

Hayman is currently making his fourth appearance at A Play, A Pie And A Pint, starring in Patrick Harkins' Sins Of The Fathers every lunchtime until Saturday.

He performed in 23756, also based on Bridges' difficult relationship with his parents, and Please, Mister, about the last man hanged at Barlinnie in 1960.

The actor has also starred in films such as Burke & Hare, The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, Where The Truth Lies and The Last Great Wilderness, as well as Glasgow gangster Jimmy Boyle in the 1979 drama A Sense Of Freedom.

Six And A Tanner arose when Hayman encouraged friend Bridges to put his difficult childhood into writing while the pair were working with Hayman's charity in Sri Lanka in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami.

l Oran Mor, tonight, 7.30pm, £12 (£9).