Mind the Gap: Scottish Theatre in the 1960s?

Abstract

The frequency with which the Traverse Theatre has been and continues to be cited in relation to the development of the arts and cultural change in Scotland has contributed to a notion that Scottish theatre in the 1960s consisted of little else and, further, that there was no tradition of theatre or theatre writing before it. This chapter argues against this received perception, examining it and factors that have contributed to it.Keywords: Scottish theatre, Citizens Theatre, Royal Lyceum Theatre, Gateway Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe, 1960s.In terms of British theatre writing critic Michael Billington has said that the 1960s was 'the most exciting decade... since the 1590s' and cited Edinburgh as one of the places in Britain where theatre 'flowers' bloomed.1 Looking back fifty years on, the casual observer, or reader outside of theatre studies, might easily be forgiven for harbouring a notion that the Edinburgh International Festival (EIF), the Festival Fringe, a two day international conference on theatre held in 1963 and the Traverse represent 'Scottish theatre' in the 1960s in its totality and, moreover, that these are solely responsible for its subsequent development if not its existence. As Billington argues, there is no disputing the importance of EIF and the Fringe, but the frequency with which the Traverse, for example, has been and continues to be cited in relation to Scotland in the 1960s has contributed to a misrepresentation: that there was little else.The popularity or 'sexiness' of the Traverse amongst scholars of the arts as well as journalists is not solely responsible for the idea that there was nothing else in the 1960s. Jim Haynes was still reinforcing this view as recently as 2009 when he justified his personal pride in being virtual father of the Traverse by stating that it had 'created the school of Scottish playwriting' where there had been 'no history of playwriting in Scotland; no established tradition of new (or first) plays'.2 This notion - that Scotland had no tradition of theatre or plays - is an obstacle with a pedigree and it was regurgitated so frequently during the 1990s campaign to establish a National Theatre for Scotland that its Committee's frustrated Chair, Donald Smith, felt compelled to draw up a list of 100 Scottish plays in an effort to put a stop to it.3 But compounded by a lack of material evidence to the contrary such notions are hard to shift. Identifying the lack of 'anthologies of playtexts of historical or canonical importance' as a problem for Scottish theatre the late Bill Findlay rescued some of it for posterity by compiling An Anthology of Scots Plays of the Seventies4 and the Scottish Society of Playwrights (SSP) included the publishing of playtexts in their remit because they saw it 'as a way to maintain the visibility of Scottish plays'. Unfortunately for Scottish plays written in the 1960s SSP was not founded until 1973.5 This goes some way to explaining why the National Library of Scotland's 2010 Curtain Up exhibition started its 'history' of Scottish theatre from the 1970s; as one of the exhibition's curators confirmed: 'there's just not much on the 1960s'.6This lack of material evidence - including a lack of what Edwin Morgan referred to as 'good' or 'real' criticism ('Sometimes scholars, critics... have their place')7 - can be said to have contributed to the notion that there was not much theatre in Scotland in the 1960s at all, a notion reinforced through criticism, histories and other personal accounts recorded here which, mirroring Jim Haynes's statements above, are constructed by largely leaving out plays and productions which did not or do not 'fit' in with the theatre preferred or supported by the commentator. This chapter is an attempt, therefore, to redress this, or fill the gap of the title, by putting on record a little more of what was actually being staged in several Scottish theatres and presenting this in context, or in relation to already existing traditions and influences (including EIF and others mentioned above) before returning to the 'problem' of later histories and representations of the decade. …