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https://theses.gla.ac.uk/ Theses Digitisation: https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/research/enlighten/theses/digitisation/ This is a digitised version of the original print thesis. Copyright and moral rights for this work are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This work cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Enlighten: Theses https://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] Politics, Pleasures and the Popular Imagination: Aspects of Scottish Political Theatre, 1979-1990. Thomas J. Maguire Thesis sumitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies, Glasgow University. © Thomas J. Maguire ProQuest Number: 10992141 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10992141 Published by ProQuest LLC(2018). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 'Th&SLS °IS iS GLASGOW UNIVERSITY LIBRARY if CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS Pi ILLUSTRATIONS pii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS piii SUMMARY piv CHAPTERS 1. Introduction pi. 2. Scotland and Thatcherism p32. 3. The Scottish Theatre Paradigm p60. 4. The Brus p98. 5. 1982 pl33 6 . MacLash pl87 7. Killing Me Softly p222 8. Losing ALec. p252 9. Border Warfare. p287 10. Conclusion. p345 NOTES p358. APPENDIXES: I Chronology of Political Events Affecting Scotland, 1979-1990. p370 II Chronological Index of Scottish Political Theatre Productions, 1979-1990. p377 III Edited Transcripts of Selected Interviews p386. BIBLIOGRAPHY p428 ILLUSTRATIONS Diagrams 1. The Components of the Scottish Theatre in 1979 p64. 2. The Components of the Scottish Theatre in 1990 p95. 3. Comparative Audience Figures for 7:84 and Wildcat 1979-1990 pl38. 4. The Wildcat Company Structure. pl48 Plates 1. Margaret Thatcher on her first day as Prime minister pi 2. Publicity leaflet for Brus p98. 3. Programme for 1982 pl33. 4. The Steamie pl43. 5. Mary's Trial pl75. 6. Publicity Leaflet for MacLash pl87. 7. The Merry Mac Fun Show pl90. 8. Programme for revived production of Killing Me Softly p222. 9. Publicty Leaflet for Losing Alec p252. 10. Alec haunts Tam & Donald p269 11. Alec's Funeral: p271. 12. Mae collapses p271. 13. Programme for Border Warfare p287. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The research for this thesis was made possible through a studentship awarded by the Department of Education of Northern Ireland. I wish to acknowledge the help of all those who have in any way contributed to my research work. Particular thanks must go to the staff at 7:84, Wildcat, and The Tron; to Peter Arnott, Roanna Benn, Jo Beddoe, Susie Brown, George Byatt, Mark Fisher, George Gunn, Sean Hudson, Fiona Knowles, John McGrath, Robin Mitchell, Ian McKay, Duncan McLean, David McLennan, Aileen Ritchie, Mairi Wallace and all those practitioners whose work has been the subject of and inspiration for this thesis. Thanks are due also to the following for granting me access to unpublished scripts: Freddy Anderson, Archie Hind, Janette McGinn, Alex Norton and Michael Wilcox. The staff of Special Collections at Glasgow University Library which houses the invaluable Scottish Theatre Archive were also extremely helpful. I am grateful to the staff and students of the Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies at Glasgow University, whose advice and experience have guided this work: particularly Professor Jan McDonald, Dr Graham Barlow and Dr Alasdair Cameron. Thanks also to my colleagues, Benedict Francombe and Christie Carson, for their support, advice and frank criticism. Above all, I am indebted to my supervisor, Greg Giesekam, for providing guidance, insight and provocative discussion; and for all the support which both he and his family have given. Finally, I wish to thank Sarah, for her patience and understanding, for her support, and for our daughter, Anna, the best reason yet for delaying submission. SUMMARY The starting point for the research on which this thesis is based was an investigation of the widening gap between Scots civil society and the British state under Thatcherism, and of how that might be focused through political theatres. This coincided with a concern to locate Scottish theatre within its own context, rather than regarding it as something merely peripheral or subsidiary to the conventional Anglo-centric model. In the light of the existing works on Scottish theatres, it was decided that the most appropriate way to achieve this would be through a series of case studies. This thesis is thus one of the first attempts at a detailed analysis of contemporary theatre in Scotland. Each case study is divided into two related sections. The first examines the development and scope of the work and working practices of each set of producers. The second section involves an analysis of specific productions which are indicative of certain aspects of the total corpus or which significantly added to that corpus. This analysis seeks to identify the properties of each different theatre in production, rather than through a literary analysis of the playscript. This necessitated the construction of a methodology which would address the elements of the production which were stable from performance to performance. Based on the understanding that the political function of the production would be judged by its social impact and effect, this methodology identified the ways in which each production related to its social context and the audience within that context. iv Plate 1: Margaret Thatcher on her first day as Prime Minister, May 1979. 1. INTRODUCTION Introduction As an undergraduate taking a course on Modern British Drama at Edinburgh University, I was made aware of the lack of any extended coherent analysis of contemporary Scottish theatre. This lack was more disturbing given the elision frequently made between 'English1 and 'British' theatre, whereby the sum of the former is considered to be the whole of the latter. Such elision was incongruous with my own awareness of Scottish theatre, ignoring the historical and continuing distinctiveness of Scottish culture from the dominant culture in England. Over the period 1979-1990, the sense of being distinct from England itself became more critical for the mass of the Scottish people as they reacted with antagonism to the New Right governments of Margaret Thatcher. The pursuit of her policies, frequently couched in the iconography of English nationalism, widened the disparities between the culture that binds Scots civil society and the institutions which inscribe this society within the British state-*-. This disparity between state and society echoed my own experiences of growing up in the Catholic-Nationalist community in Northern Ireland, yet could be viewed from a position relatively free of the baggage of that background and of the baggage common to those born and bred in Scotland. My interest in theatre meant that it was an obvious area through which to explore these tensions between state and culture in Scotland. At an early stage of my research it became apparent that the relationship between Scottish theatre and English theatre was not, or at least, not any longer one of subsidiarity. Scottish theatre was becoming increasingly distinguished by separate, though often parallel, institutions, functioning in different ways, at different levels, or to different degrees from their English counterparts. Thus, for example,- Scotland has its own Arts Council; its touring theatres are much more central to mainstream theatrical provision than comparable companies in 1 Chapter 1 Introduction England; and its local authorities have played a proportionally more substantial and proactive role in arts funding. These factors suggested the possibility of an intersection between the broader political reaction to Thatcherism and the growth of a separate cultural infrastructure at which theatres, particularly political theatres, might be located. It was this intersection that I then chose to explore by examining political theatres between 1979 and 1990. The wide range of work within the subject area meant that any attempt at an all-inclusive account would provide only the basis of a general survey. That was not felt to be desirable for reasons which are made clear below, although a survey of productions within the scope of the thesis is included as Appendix I. Instead, I have chosen to present detailed case studies of six productions to exemplify the variety of works and ways of working undertaken by producers of political theatres in Scotland over the period. In these, I assess the ways in which political functions are created through productions. This is done from a perspective which locates the theatrical event within its immediate and more general social and political contexts. In this introductory chapter, I will explain the critical background to my work; the terminology being used here; and the methodology that has been adopted. The Critical Background As I have said, there has been little critical attention paid to contemporary Scottish theatre. Since the newsletter of the Scottish Society of Playwrights, Scottish Theatre News, ceased publication, there has not even been a sustained record of developments in recent Scottish theatre.