Faultlines SSP@50 Soundscapes

Part one of selected audio extracts from interviews conducted by Jack MacGregor as part of the Faultlines project - an oral history of new writing in the Highlands. Examining the literary landscape following 7:83's monumental tour of 'The Cheviot, The Stag, and the Black, Black Oil' (1973) Faultlines was created as a way to celebrate the writers and artists making theatre in the landscape of the north, giving them the space to tell their own stories and and use their own words to explore their work.

This piece focuses on Caithness-based company Grey Coast Theatre (1992 - 2012) and features interviews with poet and playwright George Gunn and actor Helen Mackay. Grey Coast focused on creating stories that lived within the landscape and language of the far north of Scotland. The company's record of work includes 'The Gold of Kildonan (1989), The Great Bunillidh Volcano (1995), Egil Son of the Night Wolf (1998), and Atomic City (1999).

This soundscape and others will be released digitally as well as presented part of an exhibition on October 21st, 2024, at Eden Court Theatre.

Faultlines is presented with the support of Eden Court Theatre, the Scottish Society of Playwrights, and Creative Scotland.

Music credits: with thanks to Braden Deal 'Inhale Exhale" and Epidemic Sound.

Faultines Interviews: Grey Coast, Theatre in the Atomic City

Part Two of selected audio extracts from interviews conducted by Jack MacGregor as part of the Faultlines project - an oral history of new writing in the Highlands. Examining the literary landscape following 7:83's monumental tour of 'The Cheviot, The Stag, and the Black, Black Oil' (1973) Faultlines was created as a way to celebrate the writers and artists making theatre in the landscape of the north, giving them the space to tell their own stories and and use their own words to explore their work.

My next interview is with the director Catherine Robins, a leader in the arts since she began working at Perth Theatre in the 1960s alongside some pretty fascinating and towering figures in Scottish theatre, such as Joan Knight, Ian Cuthbertson, and CP Taylor. Catherine was appointed as Artistic Director of Eden Court in 1984 and helped transform the organisation, eventually stepping down in 1989. 

I first met Catherine through her work in the Scottish Arts Club, and was really pleased to sit down with her at her home in Edinburgh and talk about her time in charge of Eden Court.

During the five years of Catherine's tenure, Eden Court would produce and tour seven original productions including: "The Para Handy Ceilidh" adapted by Paul Godfrey (1985), The Rival Monster Show, adapted by Domhnall Smith (1987) and The Crofting Act (1986) which was written and toured to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the landmark legislation for those living in the north of Scotland. This piece featured individual scenes written by Donald Campbell, George Gunn, Norman Malcolm MacDonald, Catriona Montgomery, James Miller, Carolyn Proctor, and James Shaw Grant. 

Catherine would regularly direct these productions herself, along with other roles - including hand-writing / typing tour packs and scripts, some of which she gave to me after our interview.

Our conversation went into the logistics of rural touring in the 1980s, how to meaningfully connect touring productions into communities, and the philosophy behind her programming decisions as Artistic Director.

Faultlines is presented with the support of Eden Court Theatre, the Scottish Society of Playwrights, and Creative Scotland.

Music credits: with thanks to Braden Deal 'Inhale Exhale" and Epidemic Sound.

Faultlines Interviews: Catherine Robins & Eden Court Touring Company

My final interview of this series is with Hamish MacDonald and Matthew Zajac, the former and current artistic directors of Dogstar Theatre Company, based in Evanton, north of Inverness. Dogstar was originally founded as the Collector's Theatre Company in 1998, and has gone on to produce and tour dozens of shows across the Highlands, across Scotland and around the world, to Europe, America, Australia and plenty of places in between. The company has deep connections in Umea in northern Sweden with partners profile Profilteatern. Dogstar was one of the earliest companies in Britain to tour work to Ukraine post-independence, and maintains a strong relationship with Ukrainian theatres and artists. Today. In 2024, Dogstar recently partnered with Playwrights Studio Scotland and Eden Court to produce SPARK: the Highland New Play Festival (2024), which he hopes will be a recurring event to support playwrights across the Highlands and Islands. I should also mention that I've been an associate artist with Dogstar since 2022. They produced my first professional production Nightlands, and I've been lucky to work with the company in a few different roles since then. The company's most successful show 'The Tailor of Inverness' (2008) won a Fringe First, a CATS Award, and has toured the world over.

I've decided to share with you a small piece of our chat about the 2014 production and tour of 'Factor 9' by Hamish MacDonald, based on the testimonies of Bruce Norval and Robert Mackie. The piece was directed by Ben Harrison, of the company Grid Iron. The play is about the Contaminated Blood scandal, how it came to be, and the human cost of this horrendous medical experiment. I wanted to focus on this piece not just because of its topic, but because of the journey that the play took to get made and the significance of it to the survivors that are still fighting for justice around the world today. I believe it to be a hugely significant piece of work to come out of the Highlands and I'm pleased to end this part of the project (so far) with this piece.

Performance extract is read by Matthew Zajac and Stewart Porter

This soundscape and others will be released digitally as well as presented part of an exhibition on October 21st - 28th, 2024, at Eden Court Theatre.

Faultlines is presented with the support of Eden Court Theatre, the Scottish Society of Playwrights, and Creative Scotland.

Photography credits to Andreas (2014)

Music credits: with thanks to Braden Deal 'Inhale Exhale" and Epidemic Sound.

Faultines Interviews: Grey Coast, Theatre in the Atomic City

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