dramatising the political in contemporary scottish theatre
TRANSCRIPT
Dramatising the Political in
Contemporary Scottish Theatre
& Performancewith Dr Rania Karoula
The session will start at 12:00 BST.
Dramatising the Political in Contemporary Scottish Theatre and Performance
Dr Rania Karoula
Teaching Fellow in
Literature and Theatre
Images:
1. Leaflet for the original production
of Europe, Traverse Theatre,
Edinburgh 1994.
2. Poster for the play The Cheviot,
the stag and the black black oil at the
Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, 1973.
3. Black Watch, photo by Manuel
Harlan (NTS).
4. Alison Peebles as Queen Elizabeth
I. Photo by Sean Hudson.
5. Production photo of The Suppliant
Women, Royal Lyceum, 2016.
Defining the ‘political’ in theatre
• ‘Political theatre is intellectual theatre. Political meaning is “read” by the
spectator’. (Michael Kirby)
• ‘The political realm rises directly out of acting together, the “sharing of
words and deeds”. The theatre is the political art par excellence; only
there is the political sphere transposed into art. By the same token, it is
the only art whose sole subject is man in his relationship to others’.
(Hannah Arendt)
• ‘The theatre can never “cause” a social change. It can articulate pressure
towards one, help people celebrate their strengths and maybe build self-
confidence…Above all, it can be the way people find their voice, their
solidarity and their collective determination’. (John McGrath)
• ‘The history of political theatre is also a history of how to use spaces
other than the proscenium arch’. (Olga Taxidou)
What is contemporary drama?
• Theatre written and produced from the 1960s onwards
• Drama and the issues it represents/discusses becomes less literary in its prose
• Language used is more direct, raw, explicit
• More emphasis laid on theatricality: bringing the nature of theatre itself into
focus
• Theatre becomes a space, a topos, where realities are not simply represented to a
passively absorbing audience
• Emphasis on the non-textual elements of the theatrical play
• The audience is asked to be vigilant, observant, querying and primarily willing to ‘act’
• ‘act’: mental and physical a process of looking and being looked at simultaneously
• Theatricality, as a performative act, allows audience and actors to co-exist as equals
within the same space and for issues and content that arise to be critically engaged
with and considered
Contemporary Scottish Theatre & Performance Some examples of contemporary Scottish plays (which are by no means exhaustive!)
• ‘The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil’ (7:84 & John McGrath, 1973)
• ‘Mary Queen of Scots Got her Head Chopped off’ (Liz Lochhead, 1987)
• ‘Bondages’ (Sue Glover, 1991)
• ‘Europe’ (David Greig, 1994)
• ‘Knives in Hens’ (David Harrower, 1995)
• ‘The Architect’ (David Greig, 1996)
• ‘Caledonia Dreaming’ (David Greig, 1997)
• ‘Puntila and Matti’ (Bertolt Brecht translated by Peter Arnott into Scots, 1999)
• ‘Further than the Furthest Thing’ (Zinnie Harris, 2000)
• ‘Heritage’ (Nicola McCartney, 2001)
• ‘Gagarin’s Way’ (Gregory Burke, 2001)
• ‘The Wonderful World of Dissocia’ (Anthony Neilson, 2004)
• ‘Blackbird’ (David Harrower, 2005)
Contemporary Scottish Theatre & Performance • ‘Home’ (launch event for NTS, 2006)
• ‘Black Watch’ (Gregory Burke, 2006)
• ‘The Bacchae’ (Euripides – NTS, 2007)
• ‘The Artist Man and the Mother Woman’ (Morna Pearson, 2012)
• ‘Roadkill’ (Cora Bissett, 2012)
• ‘Glasgow Girls’ (Cora Bissett/David Greig, 2012)
• ‘Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis’ (Sir David Lyndsay, 2013)
• ‘Beats’ (Kieran Hurley, 2013)
• ‘The Great Yes, No Don’t Know Five Minute Theatre Show’ (NTS, 2014)
• ‘The James Plays’ (NTS – Rona Munro, 2014)
• ‘The Suppliant Women’ (Aeschylus/David Greig, 2016)
• ‘Glory on Earth’ (Linda McLean, 2017)
• ‘Mouthpiece’ (Kieran Hurley, 2018)
• ‘Lost at Sea’ (Morna Young, 2019)
• ‘The Drift’ (Hannah Lavery, 2019)
• ‘Scenes for Survival’ (NTS, 2020)
The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, black oil
Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off
Europe – Further than the Furthest Thing – Heritage
Black Watch – The Bacchae
Roadkill & Glasgow Girls
The James Plays – The Suppliant Women – The Drift
2020 – Covid and the story so far
THANK YOU!
We hope you enjoyed this Short Courses Online Winter
Session.
Term 3 Short Courses open for bookings the first week of
March 2021.
Please visit our website for more information.
www.ed.ac.uk/short-courses